Lifestream | Wayne Jacobsenhttps://www.lifestream.org
Live Loved. Live Free. Live Full.Thu, 15 Mar 2018 22:13:09 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.4https://www.lifestream.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/cropped-lifestream-water-1-32x32.jpgLifestream | Wayne Jacobsenhttps://www.lifestream.org
3232104606091What Others Are Saying about BEYOND SUNDAYShttps://www.lifestream.org/others-saying-beyond-sundays/
https://www.lifestream.org/others-saying-beyond-sundays/#commentsThu, 15 Mar 2018 22:11:34 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=11265I love the emails and comments I’ve been receiving about Beyond Sundays. I’m so grateful for those of you who have ordered it, and also for those who are recommending it to friends and family or posting reviews online. All that really helps this book find the people it will help most. And the conversations […]

]]>I love the emails and comments I’ve been receiving about Beyond Sundays. I’m so grateful for those of you who have ordered it, and also for those who are recommending it to friends and family or posting reviews online. All that really helps this book find the people it will help most.

And the conversations I’m having with people about it assures me that it is doing what I hoped it would do, open up the conversation between all of God’s children about what it means to follow Jesus in the 21st century, whether they are part of a traditional congregation or find fellowship in other ways. It’s not as important where your body is at 10:00 on Sunday morning, but where your heart lives all week long.

Here are a few of the comments I’ve been getting and some of the reviews posted at Amazon.com.

“I loved it. It was informative, challenging and gracious. Without being preachy it opens the door of opportunity for loving discourse and “true” discussion. By that I mean all viewpoints are sought for and legitimate. How rare!” Tom Mohn, Tulsa, OK

“This is a really good book! I’ve have read some of your other things in times past, but it seems as though this was just ‘the time’ to say these things with a greater weight behind them.” Quentin in Florida

“It is really, really good. My wife has not read a book in a long time and she could not put it down. Another friend wants to use it in her next small group study. It’s funny how much those chapters speak loudly to many who are still attend a traditional congregation. This book is a great sequel to Finding Church. My only question, which I know is unsolicited is, “How in the world did you figure out the order of the chapters?” I would read one and think, well Wayne I would have put this chapter first. Then read another and think the same thing. I thank you for that labor of love. I’m looking forward to your next one!” Jack from South Carolina:

“Thank you for writing a very encouraging and helpful book that reminds us to trust, relax and enjoy our Father’s love. Thank you for reminding us that Christianity isn’t a spectator sport and that “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself in love.” (Gal 5:6). Your lived wisdom and intentional Jesus approach is refreshing –and necessary. I appreciated your practical suggestions, your heart for both those who worship traditionally within church building walls and those who don’t. You befriended me on the page and challenged me and comforted me. I look forward to gifting Beyond Sundays with many!” 1Thing on Amazon.com

“This book, and the wisdom God has spoken through Wayne Jacobsen, has helped me see the heart of God for his true Church. I’ve layed aside legalism, religiousness and performance/production-based Christianity for a more genuine, intimate walk with my Jesus and am learning to love others more authentically.” Skyflyer on Amazon.com.

“A great read for God-hungry souls!” David O on Amazon.com

“Wayne again prompts the reader to think, to evaluate his walk with Jesus. He underscores the bottom line that love trumps law every time. A clear call to love those who God calls to a different path.” John on Amazon.com

“Loved this book! Finally, someone has articulated what I’ve felt for years about the institutional church. Wayne has revealed the freedom we have as believers to put meaningful relationships with the Lord and those who make up His Body before institutions, positions and man-made doctrines.” Gerard on Amazon.com.

“For years I have contemplated this new journey. Even leaving a position in a prominent institution. Yet to my dismay as I sought to find others like myself I became once again caught in the web of institutionalism. It would have been s relief to have had such a book as this to help navigate my yearnings. And now that I have read Beyond Sunday I have many questions, but at least there is a guide from someone who has walked this path and has given freely of his wisdom and his pain that sheds hope for fellow travelers. Thanks Wayne.” Cpatch on Amazon.com

]]>https://www.lifestream.org/others-saying-beyond-sundays/feed/211265Wayne Jacobsen Needs to Disappearhttps://www.lifestream.org/wayne-jacobsen-needs-disappear/
https://www.lifestream.org/wayne-jacobsen-needs-disappear/#commentsThu, 08 Mar 2018 19:20:19 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=11287Now, don’t take that headline too literally! I’m not. But I do hope it makes a point. Before I get to that point, however, let me tell you how overwhelmingly grateful I am for those of you who recommend my books, websites, or podcast to others. Since we don’t do advertising here, word-of-mouth is the only […]

Before I get to that point, however, let me tell you how overwhelmingly grateful I am for those of you who recommend my books, websites, or podcast to others. Since we don’t do advertising here, word-of-mouth is the only way my books get passed along to new people they might encourage. Without that I’d keep writing to the same audience. Thank you for quoting them, reviewing them, or recommending them to others. Your willingness to pass it on makes a big difference in whether a book or podcast finds its way to those who will benefit from it. Didn’t most of you first hear of something that deeply touched you from someone else it had touched first?

However, the things I have written and said over the last twenty years were designed to help people discover a life in Jesus that is rich with his presence, and flows in love through them to others near them. I realize that God has given me a gift to put into words what he has already been showing others. Though they may not have found the words to verbalize it yet, they recognize what he’s been saying to them in words I’ve written. I’ve heard that over and over and I want you to know how much that has encouraged me—to know that some of the things on my heart have been woven into the fabric of Jesus’ family all over the world.

What I most hope for, however, is that those things become such a part of someone else’s journey that they no longer remember where they came from and share what they have learned in their own words, as part of their own story. Share as if Jesus had shown it to you because he most assuredly has. It may have been through the words of another, but when people actually begin to live beyond true principles and connect with him, they will incarnate his truth in their own story and not merely quote others.

That’s what I mean by Wayne Jacobsen needs to disappear. When people are excited about what they are discovering, it’s easy to refer over and over again to the person whose words or encouragement have helped them see it. “Wayne Jacobsen said…”, or Dallas Willard, or Brennan Manning. It can be anybody, really. People who are not already partial to your story will grow weary of hearing that same name repeated again and again and will eventually be distracted from what you’re actually saying because they wonder if you’ve been brainwashed by some new guru. I’ve seen that look in someone’s eye as I’m being introduced to them. They are sick of hearing my name and we haven’t even met yet!

Now, I get why people do it. Some are not wanting to take credit for someone else’s thoughts. Others are blessed to find someone outside themselves to validate what they are learning. “This is not just my crazy idea, I read it in Beyond Sundays.” Others are simply encouraging their friends to resources that were helpful to them. Unfortunately it often has the opposite effect of making it look like you’re just excited about another author as you chase down the latest fad. Wouldn’t it be better if you took the things you’re learning from Jesus and just shared it as part of your story? Don’t worry about crediting to me, even if you’re using my words. If they have resonated with his Spirit in you, maybe they were not my words to begin with.

I heard someone last week repeat a sentence I’ve often used without a hint of awareness that they were quoting me. They had obviously forgotten where it came from and had become part of them. I love that. Who it came through was no longer important; the truth it expressed was. I don’t need the credit and I’d much prefer that people see the truth as coming from Jesus, not from me. When your story makes someone else hungry and they are curious about the resources that have helped you, that’s a good time to recommend a book or author.

And let’s be clear here. I’m not talking about people taking other people’s words and plagiarizing them to craft books or sermons without attributing the source. I’ve had my words, stolen by others only to build their own empire. When you claim someone’s work as you’re own you’re only being advancing the kingdom of darkness with your own vanity and dishonesty.

But I hope my larger point is not lost. When something true about Jesus takes root in your heart, share it freely with others. The power is in what’s true, not who originally put it to words. Perhaps this is what John the Baptist felt when his own disciples warned him that Jesus was becoming more popular than he was. John’s response must have shocked them. He wasn’t threatened at all for he saw himself only as the friend of the groom, not the groom himself. “The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete.He must become greater; I must become less.” (John 3)

I love it when my input into the life of another person disappears into a deeper relationship with Jesus himself. I love it when they share about the cross or the nature of Jesus in their own words and with their own illustrations. That draws the attention back to Jesus to whom this kingdom belongs. He’s the one who wants to take shape in you. Discipleship is not a matter of following the wisdom or principles that someone else teaches, but of recognizing his work in you and following him as he loves the world through you. Don’t be in a hurry. This takes some time to see with our hearts into his world and his way of doing things. Letting him show you, however, is one of the greatest adventures of being human.

The fellowship I have with him is what I want everyone to experience and what I hope they pass on in their conversations with others.

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https://www.lifestream.org/day-will-come/#commentsTue, 27 Feb 2018 16:40:08 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=11268It sure did! But that doesn’t mean there weren’t bumps along the way. Last week as part of the Ventura Star Storyteller Project, I shared a story from the earliest days of Sara and I getting to know each other. It has now been posted online. You can view the video here! It’s a great […]

But that doesn’t mean there weren’t bumps along the way. Last week as part of the Ventura Star Storyteller Project, I shared a story from the earliest days of Sara and I getting to know each other. It has now been posted online.

It’s a great reminder that love grows in the light, not where assumptions, guesses, and suspicions are allowed to run riot. I’m glad our relationship survived this blip, and we’ve been able to celebrate it for almost 43 years thereafter.

]]>https://www.lifestream.org/day-will-come/feed/211268Early Reviews for Beyond Sundayshttps://www.lifestream.org/early-reviews-beyond-sundays/
https://www.lifestream.org/early-reviews-beyond-sundays/#commentsWed, 21 Feb 2018 18:24:16 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=11204As I prepare to leave for Phoenix this weekend, I also found out a podcast aired today that I appeared on for Reports from the Spiritual Frontier. Love that name, by the way. It’s an extensive interview on my journey and the passion behind Beyond Sundays. I’ve been deeply touched by the conversations I’ve had […]

I’ve been deeply touched by the conversations I’ve had with many about this new book, and the comments others have been making about the book and how it is touching their hearts. I am grateful to those who have written to share their thoughts. Here’s a sampling:

From Lisa in South Carolina:

I just finished Beyond Sundays. God touched my heart so many times while reading it, bringing to mind times from the very beginning of my Christian walk that He brought people into my life and the relationships ran deep almost immediately and still do to this day! Then He brought to mind those that He brought along side of us through our college days, preparing for full time ministry and we were blessed with deep friendships again that have remained. And when my husband got his first position as pastor, we were blessed to gain more deep relationships and quite a few of them felt the urge to walkway from organized religion when we did. Those friendships are still vibrant today. As I finished reading this book, I thought how blessed we have been to have been living relationally with others all along, it made the transition to the freedom He has given us easier than others have had who that felt that hunger for more and only had surface level relationships to draw from for support. Thank you for putting the heart God gives you down in print to encourage the faithful and to explain His pull on our heartstrings to those who don’t understand but are curious enough to read!!

Diana on Facebook:

I truly believe this is your best work. This book spoke to my heart in a very special way. It confirmed things I’d been thinking. You spoke the truth in a clear, simple, yet elegant way, not only about the church at large, but about walking in the Spirit and in the Kingdom. I encourage everyone to read this book. (I have ordered a case to share as God leads).

Amy on my blog:

I can’t put this book down! I read the first 8 chapter the first night! It’s such a great summary of what the Holy Spirit was beginning to show me over the past few years. Jesus used this book to stir up a fresh Love for people in my soul. Time well spent for sure!

Jeremy on Amazon.com:

In light of the ground-breaking and church-altering study by Packard and Hope in their book about the so-called (but poorly named) “Dones,” Wayne Jacobsen’s book encourages these “Dones” to continue following Jesus outside the four walls of institutional Christianity.

While many are using the research and ideas in “Church Refugees” to change the way Sunday morning church is done so that the “Dones” might come back and start attending again, Wayne Jacobsen praises the “Dones” for leaving so that they might better follow Jesus, love others, and live in a daily relationship with God and others, as we were called to do.

Note very carefully that Wayne is NOT saying that the “Dones” are right and everyone who stays in the Sunday morning church service is wrong. He is saying that both can be right, and both should celebrate and rejoice the choices of the others to follow Jesus. He wants both groups to stop looking down their noses at each other and judging one another.

Toward this end, Wayne addresses many of the issues and concerns that people have about no longer attending the Sunday church service, and ultimately encourages people to follow Jesus and loves others within their relationships, whether this is in a pew on Sunday morning, or by hanging out with friends during the week.

If you are a “Done,” or feel that Jesus is leading you to something more than just the Sunday morning church service … read this book.

If you still enjoy and benefit from the Sunday morning service, but wonder why others are leaving, it is also important that you read this book. It will help you understand that they are not leaving the church, nor are they abandoning Jesus.

Oh, and by the way… one of the things I loved MOST about the book was the long list of Endorsements at the front … none of which were best-selling authors, mega-church pastors, or popular bloggers and podcasters. I assume they are all “Dones.”

]]>https://www.lifestream.org/early-reviews-beyond-sundays/feed/211204Retreat, Surgery, Storytelling, and Bridgebuildinghttps://www.lifestream.org/retreat-surgery-storytelling-bridgebuilding/
https://www.lifestream.org/retreat-surgery-storytelling-bridgebuilding/#commentsWed, 07 Feb 2018 19:48:50 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=11165Now that Beyond Sundays is out, what’s next? I get asked that a lot. Before I tell you, let me remind you that today is the last day to order Beyond Sundays at a $2.00 discount as part of our pre-publication special. If you haven’t gotten in on it, you can do so here. You […]

]]>Now that Beyond Sundays is out, what’s next? I get asked that a lot. Before I tell you, let me remind you that today is the last day to order Beyond Sundays at a $2.00 discount as part of our pre-publication special. If you haven’t gotten in on it, you can do so here. You will also find links there to get the e-book version if you prefer. It’s only $5.99.

Now, what’s next? Well, February turned out to be absolutely nuts!

This weekend twenty people from our God Journey Israel Tour (see picture above) a year ago are having a reunion out here in Brad and my homes. So, for the next few days we’re going to get to celebrate those relationships again and give them some space to grow. We’ve got people flying in from Canada and all over the U.S. We’re sorry some of our international trip mates couldn’t join us, but are looking forward to a great time renewing our friendships. It’s amazing what ten days in bus will do to cultivate some lifelong friendships.

Then, Sara is having surgery again. I know. It makes me sad, too. She’s been through so much in the last two years, but now she needs a cyst removed from the back of her knee and hopefully that will alleviate the pain in her leg enough to avoid a knee replacement. She’s having it on Valentine’s Day, too. Though we don’t celebrate it for the holiday Hallmark wants it to be, it is happens to be the anniversary of the night I first met Sara sitting across from me at a homecoming banquet 46 years ago! So it’s a day for us! I think we’ll celebrate the night before.

And then there’s this:

I’ll be telling part of the story of our early dating and a near disaster that almost sidetracked it at a Storyteller’s Night here in Ventura County. It’s a new thing sponsored by our local Gannett newspaper and I felt drawn to participate as a way to meet others in the storyteller community where I live. I just had my second coaching this morning and excited to tell the story of how Sara proposed to me nine days after our first date. Though in her defense, it was an accident. And, unfortunately neither of us knew that for another six months. If you’re local and want to join me on February 21, you can get tickets here. It’s at a comedy club with six other storytellers.

Then, I’m off for a quick weekend in Phoenix and gathering with lots of others who are on this journey… Saturday afternoon is the time for our larger conversation if you want to join us. We’ll be meeting at 1:00 in the afternoon, taking a dinner break and re-convening at 7:00 for more time in the evening. You are welcome at either or both.

But I know when people are asking what’s next, they often mean what book project. I have begun work on a novel called The Healing, that’s been in my heart for a long time. I thought I was going to put in on hold for another book that seemed to be crowding the novel out of my heart. However, on my recent trip those books came together as one book. The plot of the story I wanted to tell fit perfectly with the content I wanted to write helping people discovery how to synch their heart with the way God works in the world. I am so excited as to how those tow are coming together.

However, God seems to be opening some doors again in the work I used to do with BridgeBuilders, helping mediate disputes over political and social issues. I’ve been asked to do a TEDx event at Abilene Christian University to address the increasing polarizing political discourse in our nation. It’s called “Differences Don’t Have to Divide Us” on March 23. In addition, I’ll also be staying in Texas for a few days surrounding the TEDx event, first in Dallas/Ft. Worth, and after in the Abilene/Sweetwater area, though those gatherings have yet to be sorted out.

You can get information about the TEDx event here if you’re in the area and want to attend. The vitriol and name-calling going on in our country is not only tearing apart the fabric of our culture, but it is leading to government paralysis and decisions that only serve one side of an argument and are quickly overturned after a new election. Historically, our best decisions have been made in the collaboration of reasonable Americans who may see the issue differently but who both have a greater commitment to the common good than using government to serve their preferences or special interests. Now both major parties put party loyalty over the good of the country and society is becoming unraveled.

At the same time I’ve been asked to collaborate on a book called The Language of Healing, along with a good friend and possibly the former mayor of a large western city. It will deal similarly with how we can lower the adversarial rhetoric dominating our national politic, and rebuild a common ground that serves a wider interest than the narrow-margin political victories our representatives, media, and lobbyists have fostered. There is a better way to govern, and a better way to talk to our friends and neighbors about our political and social differences. Why do people think that obnoxiousness will endear people to their point of view, or think that anyone who disagrees with them is stupid or a bad American. Mutual respect across our differences will not only help us listen better to the concerns of our fellow-citizens, but also lead to more enduring solutions to the desperate issues facing our country.

I find it interesting that both the similarly themed book opportunity and TEDx speech have converged at this time. I’m not sure where it will lead, but I’m going to follow Jesus down this trail until I see what he might have in mind.

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https://www.lifestream.org/look-arrived-today/#commentsThu, 01 Feb 2018 00:51:23 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=11063They’re here and we’ll begin shipping tomorrow. Beyond Sundays arrived from the printer’s today and it’s always a fun day to open the boxes and look at stacks and stacks of books that I’ve been working on for two years. However, our day took an unforeseeable turn. We are caring for my daughter’s three children since […]

]]>They’re here and we’ll begin shipping tomorrow. Beyond Sundays arrived from the printer’s today and it’s always a fun day to open the boxes and look at stacks and stacks of books that I’ve been working on for two years. However, our day took an unforeseeable turn. We are caring for my daughter’s three children since she is in Mexico at a business conference with her husband. Sara dropped two of the kids off at school and wasn’t five minutes away when she got a call that Lindsay, the ten-year-old, had fallen from the monkey bars and broken her arm. Sara returned to get her and take her to emergency. I joined her there for most of the middle part of the day. The things that happen when the parents are gone…. But she’s home now and doing very well.

Anyway, so we were able to get the books unpacked and ready to ship. So pre-orders will go out in the next day or so, well in advance of our release date. I hope you find it inspiring and helpful. Also, I noticed that Amazon and Barnes and Noble already have the e-books out, so you can order from those two. They should be up on other e-book sites as well.

Unfortunately, Lifestream is publishing this book so we don’t have access to bookstores here or overseas. If you want the printed version you will either need to get it from us or Amazon, or take advantage of your favorite e-book outlet. I realize Amazon will not have it available in all countries and that shipping books overseas is incredibly expensive. We have had some changes to our shipping calculator that should be a more accurate representation of the cost. We do not charge extra for postage and charge only what we are charged. That can still be expensive from overseas, but remember we can usually ship up to four books for the same price as shipping one. When in doubt, always email our office first and get a quote for international destinations, rather than trusting the calculator. We can usually advise on the best quantity to order and give you the exact cost of shipping. As always, if you send us more than we need for shipping we will refund any extra.

And if you enjoy the book, please blog about it, comment in social media, or recommend it to your friends. It would be nice to get a conversation going that transcends our fixation with Sunday mornings and focuses instead on the life and love of Jesus growing in us and others. Let’s celebrate the great diversity of the body rather than get caught up in a tribalism that undermines his work in the world.

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https://www.lifestream.org/first-review-beyond-sundays/#commentsTue, 30 Jan 2018 23:04:11 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=11036Mike Edwards who blogs at What God May Really Be Like, just posted a review of my new book as a blog comment on my previous post. I thought those who might miss it there would be interested. Book Review: Beyond Sundays by Mike Edwards Wayne Jacobsen’s book He Loves Me was a gamechanger in […]

]]>Mike Edwards who blogs at What God May Really Be Like, just posted a review of my new book as a blog comment on my previous post. I thought those who might miss it there would be interested.

Book Review: Beyond Sundays

by Mike Edwards

Wayne Jacobsen’s book He Loves Mewas a gamechanger in confirming what I thought God was really like versus organized religion’s version. Beyond Sundays can be a similar book for many who sense something isn’t quite right about organized or institutional religion when to comes to God. Wayne’s book confirms that you are not alone but in the company of millions.

This book is for you if you are or have been a churchgoer but discouraged about the ways and message, but you have no desire to leave the faith. This book can also be for those you have never attended church but have a desire or sense a need to have more of a connection with their Creator. You may be right that organized religion has gotten some things wrong.

The style of the book is a definite plus. Each chapter is brief though packed full of food for thought to consider and run with. No extra fluff here! Chapter titles like Why Are People Leaving, Your Attendance Is Not Required, Help When You’re Done, Have We Overplayed The Sermon Card, etc. are packed full of affirmations and insights. Chapter 7 will guide you if you are leaving a church and not sure of next steps.

Wayne provides many biblical insights that you may not always hear in church. Have you been guilted by Hebrews 10:24-25 that you are being judged by God for not attending church regularly? Wayne explains it not about attending church necessarily but finding bests environments to encourage and be encouraged by others in your faith journey.

Wayne can speak from experience having been a pastor and one whose journey with God over at least the past 20 years has not involved being an active participate in an institutional church. He has traveled the world and has relationships with those who have left traditional congregations but not God.

One also appreciates that the author avoids being judgmental. He doesn’t condemn those who are best encouraged by attending church; he only advocates respecting one’s freedom to discern environments God guides them to grow in their faith. I believe those who have left the church may find their story in Beyond Sundays and be greatly encouraged. You may relate to the many reasons Wayne provides as to why millions have left the church but not God.

Imagine if millions of God seekers or followers respected and celebrated different ways to pursue a relationship with God. As Wayne asks and says: Who is right? Neither. Not a bad marriage tip as well. Wayne challenges us to stop with the language as if there are “innies and outies.”

Wayne Jacobsen’s Beyond Sundays is a voice of reason. What would a caring person or God tell us if organized religion or institutional church didn’t fit their need in their journey with God? I have a hunch Wayne would tell you to relax. Trust and have faith that God is capable and will guide you. None of us need a go-between with God. You are free to follow God as God guides. The challenge after reading this book is if others can handle your new guilt-free freedom but cut them some slack. We all have been judgmental at some time in our lives.

Thanks, Mike. That’s what I hoped people would gain from this book. If you’re a blogger or podcaster and would like to have an advance pdf review copy of Beyond Sundays, please write me to request one. And if you haven’t heard it yet, I did an hour-long radio interview with a friend in Charlotte last week.

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https://www.lifestream.org/beyond-sundays-releases-this-week/#commentsMon, 29 Jan 2018 01:21:36 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=10997As I’m finishing up in North Carolina and prepare to head home tomorrow, we have just heard that we will have copies of Beyond Sundays in hand by this Wednesday. We will begin shipping pre-orders as soon as we get them. If you haven’t pre-ordered your copy yet, you can still do so in the […]

]]>As I’m finishing up in North Carolina and prepare to head home tomorrow, we have just heard that we will have copies of Beyond Sundays in hand by this Wednesday. We will begin shipping pre-orders as soon as we get them. If you haven’t pre-ordered your copy yet, you can still do so in the next few days and get our $2.00 pre-publication discount. Just order as many copies as you want here. The e-book should follow later this week. We’ll post the links when its available at all your favorite e-book outlets.

It is my hope that this book helps the body of Christ be less tribal and open to all the ways that God moves in people and the variety of expressions by which his church takes shape in the world. If we cared more about whether or not someone is finding their life in Jesus rather than where they are (or aren’t) at 10:00 Sunday morning we’d be free to celebrate what God is doing to unify his bride, rather than judging each other for our differences.

Friday morning I did my first extensive interview about Beyond Sundays on the Vince Coakley show on WBT Charlotte. That’s Vince and I above sharing a meal together afterwards. He did a great job getting to the heart of the book. If you missed that interview you can listen to it here:

On another note, I’ve had the most amazing time the last two weeks traveling to Jacksonville, FL and then up through North Carolina from Raleigh to Charlotte. One of the real themes of this trip is the number of people I’ve met, of all ages, who are standing just on the cusp of a new journey outside of religious obligation and performance and discovering what it means to live in the affection of a gracious Father. Yes, it is disorienting and it may well drive your friends and family crazy, but you were created to know the Father, not to try to impress him with how good you can be.

Living in his love is not the reward of a life well-lived, but the starting gate for the adventure of a lifetime where love slowly but surely wins us into his reality, life, and freedom. And it’s yours for the asking. Asking him, of course, not me!

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https://www.lifestream.org/beyond-sundays-hits-airwaves/#commentsFri, 26 Jan 2018 04:11:55 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=10949Friday morning I will be discussing the release of my newest book with Vince Coakley on his radio show in the Greenville/Charlotte area. If you want to listen in you can do so here through the website. We will go live from 11:05 Eastern Standard Time, 8:05 Pacific. I always look forward to my lively […]

]]>Friday morning I will be discussing the release of my newest book with Vince Coakley on his radio show in the Greenville/Charlotte area. If you want to listen in you can do so here through the website. We will go live from 11:05 Eastern Standard Time, 8:05 Pacific. I always look forward to my lively chats with Vince and his audience.

Beyond Sundays is being finalized at the printers now. We should have them early next week, well ahead of our February 8 release date. We will ship the books just as soon as we have them on hand. The e-book should debut shortly thereafter as well. We’ll provide all the links here, though you can go ahead now and pre-order the printed copy for a $2.00 discount.

I’ll also be hanging out in the Charlotte area for the weekend if you’re nearby and want to join us. Get details here.

]]>https://www.lifestream.org/beyond-sundays-hits-airwaves/feed/310949Worthy of His Disappointment?https://www.lifestream.org/worthy-of-his-disappointment/
https://www.lifestream.org/worthy-of-his-disappointment/#commentsWed, 24 Jan 2018 16:50:10 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=10814It was a short exchange, but hopefully a fruitful one. A man had written me about the hope of getting together some time. In his email he expressed some thoughts about a previous blog that gave me pause. When you ask the question, “Are you worthy of Love?”, I had to think about it. Until […]

]]>It was a short exchange, but hopefully a fruitful one. A man had written me about the hope of getting together some time. In his email he expressed some thoughts about a previous blog that gave me pause.

When you ask the question, “Are you worthy of Love?”, I had to think about it.

Until Papa wagged “her” finger (in THE SHACK) and said, “I am especially fond of that one”, I would have said that God was disappointed with me… He did die for me, so mentally, I get the gist of John 3:16. (But) I am worthy of his disappointment. (Emphasis mine.)

My response: I’m not sure how you meant, “…worthy of his disappointment.” For God to be disappointed he would have to have expectations of you that you could meet by your own strength. And yet he knows we were “helpless” in sin.

Wouldn’t it be great to know that God was never disappointed in you? Of course, he’s been disappointed in choices you’ve made and things you’ve done, just as you have been with your girls. But never disappointed in YOU as his child.

That’s the key, I think….

Then he wrote back:

Your email gave me reason to pause and think.

My comment about being “…worthy of his disappointment” comes from being raised that we are basically bad in the sight of God… From that “programming” I realize that it is my expectation to disappoint him.

Being helpless in my sin is such a different way of thinking.

While it would be GREAT to know that God was never disappointed in me, I have to get that to my heart. Mentally I can get that I am loved, not a disappointment, etc. I think that mental knowing causes obligation, where really knowing in your heart causes peace and rest and a returned affection.

So what really caused me to think was that I HAVE been disappointed in my girls as people… NOT just in the choices they made. My religious upbringing caused the expectation that you could not “sin” if you just tried hard enough. Therefore if you do, then you “meant to”…

I am this same way with the few relationships in my life that have gone sideways. I have a relationship where a church friend lied to me to get me to join him in work. Then he continued to lie, cheat, and steal from me. I had higher expectations of him, so I hold him responsible and I am VERY disappointed with him as a person. Forgiveness is very hard here. I have a similar issue with (a relative). She isn’t a nice person to me. Again, I realize that I have higher expectations of her. I don’t think of either of them as being “helpless in their sin”, but mean people who purposefully hurt me. I AM very dissapointed in them… not their actions.

Over the past several years of thinking what it means to live loved, I really do see other people differently than I used to. Maybe I just realized that I have different expectations of them. I have started to apply this to my daughters. It may need to extend further.

This is a great journey to explore for him, for his daughters, and for everyone else around him. Religion has pounded into our heads for so long that we are a constant disappointment to God. He is offended and angry with our sins and mistakes. Only Jesus’ death made us bearable to him. But none of that is true. God sees us as powerless against the brokenness of this age and the brokenness of our own souls.

The process of healing and freedom begins when we realize we are a treasure to God. Our failures don’t make us a stench in his nostrils, but the victims of a tragic fall, even more endearing because of the darkness of our struggle. That’s why he came to rescue us, not so that he could love us, but because he already did.

I know some see that as making an excuse for sin, as if God doesn’t care. Oh, he cares. He sees the destruction of sin in each of us individually and in the larger human experience. He abhors the pain and suffering we cause each other by our self-indulgent ways and the unintentional fruit of our coping mechanisms. But he also knows the only way out is to return to his love. People who are loved well by the Father will find increasing freedom from sin’s tentacles and become a reflection of his love and healing in the world toward others.

If God is disappointed in YOU, then you have to find your way out. If he was never disappointed in you, then you have a Father to run to and a process to engage that will set you increasingly free to live as the beloved son or daughter of a gracious Father, because that’s exactly who you are!

So in your listening to the breath of the Spirit today, see if you hear something like, “I know you’ve been through some rough waters and made some hurtful choices. I am disappointed for the pain it has caused you and others, but I have never been disappointed in you as my child. I’ve held you in my heart every day, waiting for you to turn and embrace my love.”

]]>https://www.lifestream.org/worthy-of-his-disappointment/feed/710814Weaponized Lovehttps://www.lifestream.org/weaponized-love/
https://www.lifestream.org/weaponized-love/#commentsTue, 16 Jan 2018 23:18:10 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=10745No, you can’t really! The title above should be the oxymoron of all oxymorons. There’s nothing about real love that can be made into a weapon. But that doesn’t keep people from trying, especially scared parents and religious people. They turn their twisted view of love into a weapon. When you’ve done enough, especially the […]

]]>No, you can’t really! The title above should be the oxymoron of all oxymorons.

There’s nothing about real love that can be made into a weapon. But that doesn’t keep people from trying, especially scared parents and religious people.

They turn their twisted view of love into a weapon. When you’ve done enough, especially the things they think you should do, they will love you. When you don’t, they will not only withhold affection from you, they’ll resort to whatever means they have at their disposal to get you to change. They’ll give you the cold shoulder or disapproving glance. They will gossip about you with other family members. That will rant and rave until you conform to their desires. They will should all over you thinking that increasing levels of obnoxiousness will endear you to their point of view.

Sadly, sometimes it even works. Some people would rather give in to the manipulations of those they care about, than continue to endure their contempt or disdain. But even when people meet those expectations, love doesn’t grow. Resentment does. Feeling forced into change is not really change, and the never feel loved by doing so. They just get the money off of their backs.

That’s because true love cannot be weaponized. Why do religious people do it? Because they have been taught God does. He loves us all, sure, but he only gives his love to those who have earned it. If you think that’s true, you will do all you can to get in his good graces. And, when he doesn’t respond the way you think he should, you can still blame yourself for not having done “enough” to qualify for his love. It’s a horribly frustrating place to live and it will wear you out trying to do so. That’s why those people turn it on others thinking they are doing God a favor.

But God’s love cannot be weaponized. It’s never the incentive to change; it is the environment in which healing happens. Every sin and broken place in our lives is caused by us living as if we are not loved by the Creator. But we are! Deliciously! Extravagantly! Overwhelmingly. We just don’t know it.

He never uses his love as a reward because it is always there for us. It doesn’t rise and fall with our performance. We can ignore it, even reject it, but we’ll be no less loved. He knows that his love is the starting place to follow him out of the darkness and into his light and freedom.

So, don’t think someone is loving you when they are manipulating you to do what they think is best to earn their affection. That’s not love, at least not God’s kind. And don’t tell someone you love them when you withhold your affection to get them to do what you want. Neither express the reality of his love and will only confuse people with what love really is.

God’s love can’t be used as a weapon; it is a reality that pulsates through the universe. You are deeply loved by the God who created you, no matter how lost you feel. If you don’t know that, ask him to show you. Oh, and stop trying to earn it; it will only confuse you, too.

]]>https://www.lifestream.org/weaponized-love/feed/1110745A Conversation We Desperately Needhttps://www.lifestream.org/conversation-desperately-need/
https://www.lifestream.org/conversation-desperately-need/#commentsThu, 11 Jan 2018 20:02:57 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=10799We are in the final stages of publishing Beyond Sundays, and have set the release date as February 8, 2018. This is my newest title, adapted from a series of blog articles about the phenomenon of the “Dones”, those who have given up on institutional Christianity not to forsake the way of Jesus, but in hopes of […]

]]>We are in the final stages of publishing Beyond Sundays, and have set the release date as February 8, 2018. This is my newest title, adapted from a series of blog articles about the phenomenon of the “Dones”, those who have given up on institutional Christianity not to forsake the way of Jesus, but in hopes of finding a more vital and authentic faith beyond it.

What are we to make of this trend and how will it impact Christianity in the Western world? Some view it as threatening its future, while others see hope in re-centering the faith once delivered to the saints. Unfortunately there is much animosity and simplistic judgments between these groups that only fractures the bride he loves so much. Literally for Christ’s sake, we need to find a way to converse about these things in love and in a way that recognizes all the ways God is at work in our world.

This book is an appeal for the all those who seek to follow Christ to be less focused on on where others are or aren’t on Sunday morning at 10:00 and more aware of what it is to engage a vital relationship with God, and to share his love freely with others.

The book is 176 pages long and we will print copies in paperback for $11.99 and in e-book for $5.99. However, you can get our pre-order special for only $10.00. Please be advised that if you order other products from Lifestream in the same order, all products will ship together when this book is available. If you want them sooner, please order those other products separately.

If you’d like a review copy for an article you want to write about it, please contact me for a free review copy.

We hope to have copies on hand during the first week of February and will ship them just as soon as we get them in hand. An e-book will also be available through all major outlets around the same time. We will announce that in the blog when they are ready.

Here is an excerpt from the book:

Preface

In the last few decades, sixty-five million Americans who once regularly attended a local congregation no longer do. About thirty-five million of those no longer self-identify as Christian, but over thirty-one million still do. This last group has been tagged “The Dones”: those who still seek to follow Jesus and find real community, but who have given up hope that the local congregation is still relevant to their journey.

What do we make of this phenomenon? Does it threaten the future of God’s work in our world, or does it create new opportunities for God to make himself known, even if it challenges our hopes or preconceptions?

I have spent my life in both places. I grew up in a traditional congregation and pastored in two of them for over twenty years. For the past twenty-three, however, I’ve spent more time outside with those who no longer participate in a Sunday (or Saturday) morning institution. I see the animosity between the two camps, and I yearn for the day when we can have a healing dialog consistent with the prayer of Jesus that we would all be one. Nothing, he said, would demonstrate his reality better to the world than the love his people share together.

It’s a conversation we desperately need, and not just between various factions of Christianity. I hope this book can seed that conversation between friends and families in communities throughout the world. Whether you attend a local church or whether you don’t, responding to this phenomenon will have repercussions for generations to come. We can continue to treat each other with suspicion and judgment that further fracture our Father’s family, or we can celebrate all the ways he works to bring people to himself and transform them in his love.

Additionally, I hope this book encourages those who have lost their mooring in institutional Christianity and yet still hunger for a relationship with God and real community with others. The failures of organized religion do not discount God’s reality or your opportunity to get to know him. I want to help you navigate a life of growing faith and impact in the world beyond the institutional borders that may have harmed you.

This is a propitious moment in Christian history, and all the more so as the world darkens around us. May we all respond in a way that allows the glory of the Lord to arise out of the love of his people, and by doing so, proclaim to the world that our God is real and worthy to be followed.

]]>https://www.lifestream.org/conversation-desperately-need/feed/1210799I Believe In a Redeemerhttps://www.lifestream.org/i-believe-in-a-redeemer/
https://www.lifestream.org/i-believe-in-a-redeemer/#commentsTue, 09 Jan 2018 20:27:32 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=10792A good friend sent me this story the other day…. At the time he was manager of the campus radio station at Oral Roberts University and a seminar speaker on campus in the late 1960s. One of the best sermons he ever heard happened one morning in chapel from Campus Chaplain, Tommy Tyson: Brother Tyson […]

At the time he was manager of the campus radio station at Oral Roberts University and a seminar speaker on campus in the late 1960s. One of the best sermons he ever heard happened one morning in chapel from Campus Chaplain, Tommy Tyson:

Brother Tyson got up and read from 1 Cor. 1:30-31. “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, ‘Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.’”

Then he said this: “I do not believe in redemption, I do not believe in healing, I do not believe in deliverance, I do not believe in salvation.”

As he said his the student body and faculty present gasped. He let a few moments pass before finishing, “Here’s what I believe. I believe in a Redeemer, a Healer, a Deliverer, a Savior and much, much more!”

Never settle for theologies apart from the person of Jesus Christ! Wayne, I never forgot that moment.

I love that!

It gave me goose bumps to read it.

Whenever we separate the Gospel from our relationship to the Living Christ, we are left with empty doctrine, true though it be! The purpose of the Incarnation was not to start a Christian religion with finely-tuned doctrine and rituals, but to unveil a mystery—”Christ in you, the hope of glory!”

Get to know him and watch his glory unfold. Don’t settle for substitutes.

]]>https://www.lifestream.org/i-believe-in-a-redeemer/feed/710792Truth Has Its Timehttps://www.lifestream.org/truth-has-its-time/
https://www.lifestream.org/truth-has-its-time/#commentsFri, 05 Jan 2018 00:35:40 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=10734Among those things I know now, that I wish I’d known when I was twenty-two and fresh out of college with my Bible degree, is that you cannot convince someone that something is true if they are not ready to hear of it. Somehow I got the idea that “ministry” was about knowing the truth […]

]]>Among those things I know now, that I wish I’d known when I was twenty-two and fresh out of college with my Bible degree, is that you cannot convince someone that something is true if they are not ready to hear of it.

Somehow I got the idea that “ministry” was about knowing the truth and convincing others to believe it, too.There were two problems with that. Much of the “truth” I had then, didn’t turn out to be so true at all. And, all of the time spent trying to argue people into my ideas, even those that turned out to be true, were as fruitless as trying to get my grapevines to produce grapes in February.

Truth has its time, and as I look back over my life at the start of a new year, I have a deep appreciation for the trajectory of revelation and transformation in the human heart. These are not things we control, but I love watching how the Holy Spirit begins to unravel our false ideas from the inside and prepare us for those moments when the Truth clarifies in our heart and we find ourselves able to take a step forward in embracing his love or finding a way to share it with others. I’ve had a lot of joy over the past few years watching this process in my own life as well as watching it in others as well.

I was reminded of this by a recent email I received:

I have just finished listening to Finding Church for the 4th time yesterday in the past 2 months (I have a long drive to work!)

30 years ago the old me would have thought it weird.

20 years ago I would have tried to understand what you were saying.

10 years ago I would have wished it was true.

8 years ago I would have not thought it clear enough as I looked for the 10 steps.

But now I see. It is just by loving the one in front of you and seeing how God touches them through the interaction. It is learning that you are loved and sharing that love with others.

I laughed when I read it. Thirty years ago I probably would have declared those ideas heresy. Twenty years ago I would have been intrigued with the hope, but thought them too idealistic to work. Ten years ago, I was already seeing that reality live out in my life and the lives of others around me and my view of his church was changing. Today, I can’t think of the church any other way and with that has come a deep appreciation for the church Jesus is building in the world in spite of all that we humans have done to craft her in our own image. And when I think about ten years from now, my heart leaps with the anticipation of what I might yet learn about him and his work in the world.

Truth has its time. We don’t so much learn it in a classroom as it unfolds in us out of our growing relationship to God. Growth and transformation are a process that takes time. It would be nice to recognize truth out of the clear blue and just embrace it, but it rarely works that way. Mostly truth works its way into our heart over time as God wins us more deeply into his affection for us. Maybe that’s what Jesus had in mind when he told the disciples he would send them Another Comforter and he would guide them into all truth. He even admitted to them that he had so many more things to teach them but that they weren’t ready for them yet. I love how Jesus had a sense of the unfolding reality of truth in our hearts. He didn’t confront them with truth and demand they make a choice, but he opened the door to truth to see who was ready to walk through.

If I’d known that forty years ago, my heart would have been softer in the hands of the Master. I would have been far more gentler with people who didn’t see what I hoped they would see. I would have spent far less time trying to argue people into my view of truth. And, I would have trusted the Spirit to guide me better when others were trying to convince me of things they thought were true that didn’t yet make sense to me.

I would have taken all that energy I used to try and convince others and to let him teach me to walk in the truth I had already been given. And, I would have spent far more time encouraging others who were already hungry for the truth, rather than trying to convince others of it who weren’t yet ready and couldn’t yet see it.

In short, seeing the Spirit as the convincer of people, and I their friend has allowed me to be more relaxed in God’s process, not only in my heart, but with others around me as well. It is far more fruitful to help people into the truth they are seeking, rather than to badger them into what they are resisting. Believe me!

]]>https://www.lifestream.org/truth-has-its-time/feed/2010734Are You Worthy of Love? https://www.lifestream.org/are-you-worthy-of-love/
https://www.lifestream.org/are-you-worthy-of-love/#commentsFri, 22 Dec 2017 17:39:17 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=10736If you gave this question serous consideration, we probably need to talk. The saddest words I hear from people are those that wonder if they are worthy of God’s love. That question is predicated on the biggest lie to find it’s way into God’s creation—that love can be earned. It can’t. Nothing disproves that lie […]

]]>If you gave this question serous consideration, we probably need to talk.

The saddest words I hear from people are those that wonder if they are worthy of God’s love. That question is predicated on the biggest lie to find it’s way into God’s creation—that love can be earned.

It can’t.

Nothing disproves that lie better than the coming of Christ into our world that we celebrate at this Christmas season. He didn’t come to redeem people the Father was disgusted with, but those he loved. Even on the night Christ was born, the shepherds heard the angels proclaim, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”

Pleased? Really? With all the brokenness in the world? Sin was rampant, Humanity was ever at war with itself and his own people were under Roman captivity and lost in their legalism. How could God be pleased with humankind?

Luke certainly didn’t mean God was pleased with the brokenness in his creation, but that he was pleased with humanity in spite of it. God’s love is not so fickle as to come and go based on how good we are. Love is love, even at our most broken, no less than you would have for your children. Our struggle in the darkness only endears us to him as his compassion seeks to rescue and redeem us.

We are all worthy of love because of the place we hold in Father’s heart. No failure, or broken place changes that. The prodigal son was loved as much when he was wasting his father’s money as he was when he returned home. It’s just that he wasn’t living in that love. He didn’t believe it and though he thought he had good evidence for his conclusion, they were based on the lie. Even when he returns home he considers himself “not worthy” to be called a son.

But he was worthy simply because of the value he held in his father’s heart. The joy of the Gospel is not in getting God to love us, but to relax into the reality of the love he already has for us. Those who grew up abused or neglected have a hard time embracing that. The rejection of their parents seemed proof that they were so flawed as to be unworthy of love. But that is just part of the lie.

Those who grow up in religious settings, who think their performance can endear them to God, fall victim to the same lie. You can’t earn what you already have. You are loved, no less today than when the Father conceived you in his heart before you were born.

That’s the Gospel. Believe it or not, the Creator of the universe is your loving Father. You have the choice to run to that love and embrace it, or hide outside of it as long as you want. Love offers a door; it doesn’t force it’s way.

He loves you as much as any other person on the planet. For those who don’t know that in the deepest part of your soul, Sara and I are praying that Father will reveal that to you and you will find the freedom to joyfully embrace how deeply he delights in you. That’s where this journey of faith truly begins.

And what a Christmas miracle that is!

Notes For the New Year:

Wayne’s Latest Book Is Almost Here

Beyond Sundays, Wayne’s newest book, will be available early in 2018. It will cost $12.00 and we’ll begin taking pre-orders in early January. It will also be available by e-book as soon as we can get that done.

This is an adaptation of blogs postings Wayne has written over the last year about the current dilemma of people leaving the traditional congregation and the opportunity it affords for the whole church to celebrate all the ways that Father is at work among his people and how he is preparing the bride for the return of his Son.

Travel Dates for Early in 2018

Jacksonville, FL- January 18

Raleigh, NC – January 19-22

Greensboro, NC – January 23-24

Charlotte, NC – January 25-29

Phoenix, AZ- February

Abilene, Tx – March 22-25

If you’re in these areas and still want to plan something, we do have some available time. Or if you just want to join us, please see our Travel Page, where details will be posted when we have them. If you’d like to be notified when I’m coming to your area you can sign up on our email list and include your address.

Kenya Update

Thanks to the generosity of so many of you, we have given just under $200,000 this year to the people in Kenya with orphan children and to help the people in Pokot establish a sustainable future. We put in two agricultural projects so they can grow their own food, and have helped with hospital staff, medicine, food, education and micro-finance loans to help create enterprise. Get more information here.

Staying Up With Lifestream

If you did not receive this by email yesterday or today, then you re not signed up for our blog or our mailing list. If you’d like to be, you can do so here. Include your address details if you want to receive Travel Updates when I’m planning a trip to your area. If you’re not signed up to get my blogs or the podcasts straight to your inbox, you can go to those home pages and submit your email address in the appropriate are.

]]>https://www.lifestream.org/are-you-worthy-of-love/feed/810736A Jake around Every Corner?https://www.lifestream.org/jake-around-every-corner/
https://www.lifestream.org/jake-around-every-corner/#commentsWed, 13 Dec 2017 17:12:26 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=10704Sometimes, somewhere beyond the cosmos, our Father must look over at Jesus and with a big smile on his face say, “Watch this…” This might be one of those times. I’ve had an email correspondence over the last few days with a woman in Australia that has brought more than a few smiles to my […]

]]>Sometimes, somewhere beyond the cosmos, our Father must look over at Jesus and with a big smile on his face say, “Watch this…”

This might be one of those times.

I’ve had an email correspondence over the last few days with a woman in Australia that has brought more than a few smiles to my heart. I love how the Spirit works, especially when we’re a bit clueless to what he is doing. This is the story she shared with me, pieced together from a few emails. I love how the Spirit just keeps knitting his family together even in very unexpected ways.

I first bought your book So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore for my eldest son of six children when he was not wanting to go to church as a late teenager. I gave it to him to encourage him back into the fold, without actually even looking through the book to see what it was about.

He read it and said “Mum, did you even read this book? I don’t think it says what you thought it might say.”

So, I read it for myself, and laughed, and thought you were a bit misled. Fast forward a few years and I was in a totally different place in my relationship with God and re-read it after some friends had just read it and loved it. Then I “got” it. My youngest three (by now teenagers) were not wanting to go to church anymore as well.

For a whole bunch of reasons, including considering my children – we left the institution ourselves. I said to the pastor at the time “I fear for my children if I stay and I fear for my children if I go” My fear was that if I stayed, they would just think this is what Christianity looked like and eventually reject it altogether as too boring. I knew there was so much more. My fear in leaving was the unknown, and the worry that we were making a big mistake that would have consequences in my children’s lives. They were being homeschooled and church was a source of socialisation. But it was a lonely place for them even in the midst of church and for me too) as there were really no other young people there for friendship anyway. It certainly has been an interesting journey and this is by far the short version. It has not been a mistake.

In May last year, my husband and I were taking a trip with some friends to the centre of Australia and had to take a huge detour because of floods. This meant we called in on some acquaintances who run an art gallery and they sent us on our way with CDs of your Transitions teaching. My, the lengths God goes to sometimes! My husband doesn’t normally listen to CD’s but because we were travelling long distances, he had nothing better to do. The teaching really spoke to him in a life changing way. I keep listening to them over and over – so much good stuff in there and I just want to absorb it all into my spirit. I have since passed them on to someone else.

I would never have imagined myself in the place I am in now. I have grown up going to church every week and we have always been very involved and busy with the various programs. But that was another aspect of us leaving – in many ways I felt like I had hidden myself from the world in the church. I was so busy with the church, I didn’t have time or energy to invest anywhere else. I gradually got myself out of all the rosters and then joined the local soccer club committee as my children have all played over the last 20 years, and my youngest son still plays. I considered that I had spent so many years serving God in the church, now I was serving Him outside of the church and it gave me an opportunity to get to know and love some other people in the community. A friend once asked me, who gets to benefit from your gifting if you are in church? Interestingly, I feel like I’m actually using my spiritual gifts as the secretary there.

We attended a wedding last weekend and a friend of the bride was asked to share a short address during the wedding. As I listened to him speak about the most important thing the bride and groom, and all of us, need is to know how loved we are by our Father God and to then just love others. I recognised a fellow pilgrim on the journey. I had never met this man before but my husband and I were able to sit with him and his wife during the reception. I began to sus him out and when he confessed that he”actually doesn’t attend church anymore”, I said ‘welcome to the club”. When I asked him for his story, he just said “Well, you know Jake don’t you?” Indeed I do!

My husband said later, “We just keep running into these people…” God is definitely up to something!

The journey continues but thank you so much for allowing God to take you on the journey and then share it with others.

Do you hear the click of his knitting needles as the Spirit brings Jesus’ church together in the world?

]]>https://www.lifestream.org/jake-around-every-corner/feed/810704Finishing our Discussion on Finding Churchhttps://www.lifestream.org/finishing-discussion-finding-church/
https://www.lifestream.org/finishing-discussion-finding-church/#commentsFri, 08 Dec 2017 22:40:01 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=10666For the last eighteen months a group of us have been working through the themes of Finding Church chapter by chapter. We are now reaching the end of that study. The discussion, however, will remain up as other people can come along and start with chapter 1 and work through it now at their own […]

]]>For the last eighteen months a group of us have been working through the themes of Finding Church chapter by chapter. We are now reaching the end of that study. The discussion, however, will remain up as other people can come along and start with chapter 1 and work through it now at their own speed. Our hope was to let people contemplate the content of each chapter and how that might impact their own lives as they seek to follow Jesus.

It has been a wonderful study with lots of contributions by others. You can find out more here if you are interested.

One of the discussion questions I posed today goes to the heart of all of our journeys. You might want to contemplate it in your own:

Perhaps the greatest barrier in our own relationship with Jesus as well as connecting to his church in the world is to lay down our own agendas and expectations to let him truly be in control of the process. That’s the most difficult obstacle for us humans to face. We’re afraid if we let go, we won’t get what we want. And that may be true, but the hope of the Gospel is, when we give up we’ll get something better than we were trying to hold on to because he does know best about everything.

In your spiritual journey, what agenda in your heart has been (or still is) the most difficult to recognize and lay down?

For me, it was wanting to follow Jesus AND get the overwhelming approval of other Christians around me. For nearly forty years I never saw the inherent conflict between those two things, but my need for significance nonetheless made me double-minded in a way that caused me to miss countless times the life Jesus was nudging me into.

Hopefully other people will share theirs and we’ll all see that we’re not alone in this journey. Letting Jesus be our Lord and Leader is far easier to confess than it is to do, and the toughest part may be recognizing the problem itself. Our need to control travels in many disguises including commitment and devotion. It feels like we are doing our part, when in fact we’re trying to do his. It will lead to endless frustration until we can embrace enough of his love to realize he has our best at heart and if he’s not fulfilling what we desire, it’s because he desires something better. But laying down ours long enough to recognize his, is a great challenge is this journey.

]]>https://www.lifestream.org/finishing-discussion-finding-church/feed/210666Why a Wayne Jacobsen Book?https://www.lifestream.org/wayne-jacobsen-book/
https://www.lifestream.org/wayne-jacobsen-book/#commentsMon, 04 Dec 2017 19:53:47 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=10616I am appreciative to all of you who weighed in on my dilemma as to what to title my new book. There were a lot of great suggestions, and I appreciate being able to think this through alongside your input. At this point I think I’m going to go with: Beyond Sundays: Why Those Giving up […]

]]>I am appreciative to all of you who weighed in on my dilemma as to what to title my new book. There were a lot of great suggestions, and I appreciate being able to think this through alongside your input. At this point I think I’m going to go with: Beyond Sundays: Why Those Giving up on Organized Religion May Not Be Bad for the Church. Of course no title is final until the book is sent to the printers!

Now I want to ask for a bit more help.

And this is riskier, at least for me.

It realize this could be misinterpreted as an exercise in self-aggrandizement. I hope it isn’t that. Many books include endorsements from other authors and celebrities about the content of the book. I have in the past included “endorsements” from normal, every-day people instead of celebrities because that’s the lifeblood of this family. And endorsements of the content really help those who are not familiar with my stuff to have an idea whether or not a book is worth their time.

For this book, however, rather than commenting on the content, I’d like to have comments from readers about the author. In other words, if a friend of yours asked, why they might find a book by me helpful, how would you answer them? How has God used them to encourage your journey or how do I come off as a person or writer?

Honestly this isn’t an attempt to get people to say a lot of nice things about me here, or on social media. I’m not fighting off an identity crisis and need people to stoke my ego for a few days. I just want to have something different in the front of the book. You can post here, or send them to me personally. I’m planning to select about 20 of them to include in the front of the book, and maybe on the cover copy.

So, try to answer this question, “Why would I want to read a book by Wayne Jacobsen?” Keep them short. The more creative the better. Don’t overstate it. If you know me personally you might have something to say that will help the reader think beyond the book itself. Two or three sentences will do. Please include how you would like to be identified, e.g. “Pam a third-grade teacher in Wisconsin”, or “Matt, a father of two in Port Elizabeth, SA”.

I hope that makes sense. You have no idea how such recommendations open a door for people who are considering a book, but are not quite sure if the author is worth their time. I hope this is different enough to be a bit of fun for you.

]]>https://www.lifestream.org/wayne-jacobsen-book/feed/3710616Finding a Different Rhythm and a Better Journeyhttps://www.lifestream.org/finding-different-rhythm-better-journey/
https://www.lifestream.org/finding-different-rhythm-better-journey/#commentsFri, 01 Dec 2017 18:47:46 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=10625Finalizing my latest book for publication, I ran across these two paragraphs. They express better than any other the transformation I see in people all over the world who move beyond religion and embrace a different way of living: Following ritual and rules that others demand of you is still following law, even if we […]

]]>Finalizing my latest book for publication, I ran across these two paragraphs. They express better than any other the transformation I see in people all over the world who move beyond religion and embrace a different way of living:

Following ritual and rules that others demand of you is still following law, even if we call them “New Testament principles.” God doesn’t transform us through obligation or meeting the expectations of others. The reason why many of us grew frustrated in religious settings is because they made promises they couldn’t fulfill. The harder we tried the emptier we felt. God has been inviting you to live in a new creation where his love transforms us in the deepest part of our soul.

Over this season you’ll learn to see through the manipulation of obligation, accountability, guilt, and fear and into a different rhythm that will allow you to live more at rest, aware of others, and free from the corrupting influences of this age. Instead of doing what others think you should do, you’ll be freer to discern his work in you and find yourself embracing his realities of grace, forgiveness, freedom, and generosity.

It all begins as you ask him to show you how deeply loved by God you are, then watching for how he shows you that reality. This is the trailhead that will lead you to greater freedom and fullness.

]]>https://www.lifestream.org/finding-different-rhythm-better-journey/feed/1210625Lifestream Classic: The Call of the Shepherdhttps://www.lifestream.org/lifestream-classic-call-shepherd/
https://www.lifestream.org/lifestream-classic-call-shepherd/#commentsTue, 28 Nov 2017 19:23:09 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=10605Before there was Jesus Calling, I wrote this article about the kinds of things the Shepherd whispers to help people who had lost a sense of his voice, to find their way back to him. Written in 2004 as part of a quarterly newsletter we used to send out, I was reminded of it in […]

]]>Before there was Jesus Calling, I wrote this article about the kinds of things the Shepherd whispers to help people who had lost a sense of his voice, to find their way back to him. Written in 2004 as part of a quarterly newsletter we used to send out, I was reminded of it in a conversation last week, so went back and sought it out.

As I read it again, I thought it might be worth sharing with those of you who haven’t seen it. I hope it encourages you and helps tune your heart to hear the words he is always speaking to your heart.

Here’s how it starts:

Do you remember the first day you knew that I loved you? Do you remember how clean you felt and how light your heart was? The air seemed clearer, the colors of my creation brighter. You felt as if you had stumbled out of a dark, dirty cave and plunged headlong into a clean, cool stream. You drank in the reality of my presence and splashed with delight in my goodness.

In that moment nothing else mattered. You knew at the very core of your being that I was real, that I had great affection for you. Even in the face of dire circumstances, you were convinced that there was nothing we couldn’t walk through together. My love not only overwhelmed you, it also overflowed you with grace for others, even those who had wronged you. You woke up every morning in eager anticipation of what I’d show you that day. You delighted yourself in me as I delighted myself in you and each day became an adventure together.

Wouldn’t you like to come back to that space? That’s not just where I wanted you to start. It was where I wanted you to live every day.

]]>https://www.lifestream.org/lifestream-classic-call-shepherd/feed/110605Thanksgiving from the Other Side of the Worldhttps://www.lifestream.org/thanksgiving-side-world/
https://www.lifestream.org/thanksgiving-side-world/#commentsThu, 23 Nov 2017 15:00:54 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=10591I’m going to let my friend, Michael Wafula from Kenya share his Thanksgiving message with you. This is our man coordinating the distribution of our gifts on behalf of the people of Kenya and North Pokot. Above is a picture of our first agricultural project there as the sweet potatoes get close to harvest. You […]

]]>I’m going to let my friend, Michael Wafula from Kenya share his Thanksgiving message with you. This is our man coordinating the distribution of our gifts on behalf of the people of Kenya and North Pokot. Above is a picture of our first agricultural project there as the sweet potatoes get close to harvest. You can read more about its success and recognition below:

Dear brother Wayne receives wonderful greetings in the most powerful name of our lord and savior Jesus Christ. On behalf of our coaching team, the North Pokot mission project, the Living Loved Care Centre, Forkland School, and all investment we have done here by the grace of God through you , we thank God for its accomplishment.

First and foremost, we would like to appreciate our Almighty God our caring and loving Father, for empowering our beloved Kenyan families and Africa as well as the Bible says that this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all nations and to all tribes before the kingdom will come. The gospel of Christ be accompanied by the action as the book of James stated. If your brother or sister is in need you cannot just tell him/her to be warm and be fed. Without meeting his/her need the gospel is dead. When Jesus was on the planet, he preached the gospel, feed the hungry and clothed the naked. This is holistic ministry.

In North Pokot they have never experienced that kind of love for many years, even from their ancestors whom they were worshipped before in mountains and rivers. Even the government did not address the needs and challenges where they lived. But God in his faithfulness used us as the vessels to reach this unreached area some years back. Our aim for going there it was just to spread the gospel to the nomadic people who lived in the bush, migrating from place to place looking for water, food and green pastures for their cattle. We didn’t know that God he had a great plan to impact their lives. Now the salvation has entered and transformation has taken place.

This is the great ministry to see this impact and wonder how this could happen. This is a life-changing miracle. As the book of Isaiah says that the past things are passed away and the Lord is saying, “Behold I will do a new thing—a stream of water jetting out in the wilderness and the animals, the the hare will enjoy and the ostrich will drink the water. This scripture has been fulfilled in this place because we spoke this verse for our first mission trip, that no matter how length of time will take, God will fulfill it. We did not know how this would happen, but we believed God.

Wherever we go in the village and in the community, there is a song of joy and happiness and wherever we visit their nomadic life has changed and now they have settled and enjoy blessings of eternal father who has allowed this miracle to happen. Now you can hear the old men and women speaking in their mother language while stretching hands and pointing up the heaven and the old women kneeling down and thanking God for what has been done for them. And the ladies from the community singing praise songs to the lord.

The pastors are reporting that no building can be constructed large enough to contain the people and they have learned that the church is not the building but it is a people. They learn from your book So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore, which was translated in Pokot language and it has greatly helped them spiritually, so they can be gathered in fellowships and groups to worship God. They have been taught that the church is not the building, but that they are the living church. This is amazing to see the entire community worshipping God. This is the great evangelism, which nobody before, but God himself.

Thank you for having a trust in us to release such a great resource to pass through our hands, this we count as a great favor before the Almighty God. We do it in the fear of God as just stewards of God’s resources. We channel it to the right project and specific need as we requested. When you come you will see the same as the pictures you received from us. You have a lot of investment here—the wells, the schools both in Kitale and North Pokot, medical supplies, emergency needs, latrines, micro-finance loans, gas station, grain enterprise and now irrigation.

The first irrigation is done and within a short time the second will as well. Even the Department of Environment has approved and licensed it. The Ministry of Health department has given us a recommendation certificate. The Ministry of Agriculture and Water Services has also applauded the move for farming and said this irrigation the only successful one in North Pokot and the best in Pokot county as a whole compared with other irrigation in the Eastern Pokot where some NGOs have pumped millions of shillings. We thank God for this great achievement. The county government has promised us that in case of any help comes, we shall be given the first priority.

So, brother Wayne we are surprised at what God is doing in this region. This is not the idea of men or the plan of mankind; this is amazing life miracle which is taking place in this region. Thousands of souls have come to the Lord Jesus. Many people has been healed, a hundred of families has been transformed and also many children has been restored to life again. Let the world know of the miracle has happened in Kenya—North Pokot region. The people who were not known to the planet are the people who have now experienced a double portion of love. To you and together with all those who have stretched their hands towards our brothers and sisters here, we ask the grace of God to cover their families and their resources that they gave from. May God may triple it that they may not lack anything that they desire.

* * * * * * * *

Is this part of what Jesus meant, when he said, “Greater works than these shall you do?” I think so. This is an amazing testimony of the Spirit stitching three things together—a desperate need in Africa, Kenyans who were willing to go and help them, and generous hearts around the world who would combine together to help them. It is full of miracles, sacrificial giving for people we don’t even know, and a first-century explosion of the Gospel in a forsaken land at the ends of the earth. I am grateful!

There’s still more to be done, however. If there ever was an opportunity to genuinely help people, without anyone else siphoning off money for administrative fees or other benefit, this is it. All contributions are tax-deductible in the US. And as always, every dollar you send goes to the need in Kenya. We do not (nor do they) take out any administrative or money transfer fees. Please see our Sharing With the World page at Lifestream. You can either donate with a credit card there, or you can mail a check to Lifestream Ministries • 1560 Newbury Rd Ste 1 • Newbury Park, CA 91320. Or if you prefer, we can take your donation over the phone at (805) 498-7774.

Thank you on behalf of the people in Kenya for your generosity and prayers on their behalf.

]]>https://www.lifestream.org/thanksgiving-side-world/feed/610591Torn Between Two Titleshttps://www.lifestream.org/torn-two-titles/
https://www.lifestream.org/torn-two-titles/#commentsTue, 21 Nov 2017 19:50:56 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=10589I’m finishing up my newest book, which I have tentatively called The Phenomenon of the Dones. I’ve written these chapters as part of my blog over the last two years and posted the last chapter, To the Saints Scattered…, a few weeks ago. Now I’m going through and revising all the chapters as well as […]

]]>I’m finishing up my newest book, which I have tentatively called The Phenomenon of the Dones. I’ve written these chapters as part of my blog over the last two years and posted the last chapter, To the Saints Scattered…, a few weeks ago. Now I’m going through and revising all the chapters as well as rearranging them to make it flow better. I hope to have it available early in 2018 as an e-book and printed book.

But lately I’ve been reconsidering the title. Since “The Dones” as a term has not really caught on in the wider faith culture, I’m considering switching the title to Beyond Sundays. So, I want to use my readers here as a focus group. Do you have a preference, and if so why? Reading your thoughts and comments, either here on the blog or on my Facebook page will help me sort out the best way to go here.

So, which do you think would be most helpful to find it’s audience?

Option 1:

The Phenomenon of the Dones
Why Those Giving Up on the Traditional Congregation May Not Be Bad News for the Church

Option 2:

Beyond SundaysPursuing a Life in Jesus Outside the Traditional Congregation

Thoughts, anyone?

I’m torn between the two, so I would appreciate hearing how these hit some of you.

]]>https://www.lifestream.org/torn-two-titles/feed/12910589Jake Colsen Rides Againhttps://www.lifestream.org/jake-colsen-rides/
https://www.lifestream.org/jake-colsen-rides/#commentsFri, 17 Nov 2017 17:56:53 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=10561I love how this book finds its way to people when they seem to need it most. What started as a fun project between two friends to try to tell a story of someone learning to live loved on a website, became a book that has sold way beyond my expectations. In addition, the free […]

]]>I love how this book finds its way to people when they seem to need it most. What started as a fun project between two friends to try to tell a story of someone learning to live loved on a website, became a book that has sold way beyond my expectations. In addition, the free version has been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times. I never realized how much

Just this past week, I received two emails from people who have recently been touched by this story. First, from a brother in Canada:

I just finished reading the book for the SECOND time! I have read some of your other material and I listened to the Transition series,but up until recently I had been unable to download this book for some reason (I think it was God’s timing, personally).

We have been in formal church settings for many years until recently. I had become increasingly frustrated with the lack of opportunity in most Christian meeting to really have any kind of meaningful connections with other believers. It seemed easier in the local restaurants and coffee shops to connect with people. Although I really love worshipping God with much of the current worhip music, I found that the tendencies of ‘worship leaders’ in local assemblies to try to manipulate how people respond to God in the times of corporate praise was a huge distraction to my connection with God and often irritating.

We are now one of the ‘Dones’. I do meet with other believers often and have great time of fellowship. I just wanted to tell you a bit about myself and also to express my appreciation for this book. My eyes were opened to many things and already I can see God working in my heart in new desires of how I can walk relationally with people instead of religiously. I also took to heart the wisdom of not trying to ‘convert’ people to these new ideas if they are not ready to hear them!

You are a great blessing to the body of Christ. Thank you for all the material you have made available.

And this from a sister in Montana:

I just wanted to tell you how deeply I was moved by your book So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore: An Unexpected Journey. I had been talking with a friend who is also Christian, but he and his wife no longer attend church services. I was bemoaning to a friend some of the struggles in our church and my agony over the decision of whether to drop my membership. My friend is always very tuned into what Father places in his heart, and he immediately told me to get a pen and write down your name and the title of this book. I ordered the book that afternoon.

From the very beginning I was so captivated that I couldn’t put it down. It answered a question I had long pondered: Why do we need pastors to interpret the Bible for us? Why do we need others teaching us what to think and believe? Isn’t the Bible alone adequate to instruct us? Churches, I had observed, often become clubs with cliques, to varying degrees, with people chasing the desire for popularity or bowing under the weight of guilt and obligation. This book set free the lifelong belief instilled in me of the necessity of attending church every Sunday in order to prove my faithfulness as a disciple of God. I love the idea of Father simply wanting a relationship with us. That is so liberating!

Your book validated feelings I already had, opened my eyes to new thoughts I hadn’t before considered, and did a beautiful job of modeling what genuine Christian fellowship looks like. My only disappointment in it was that John (whom, I’m certain, ALL readers love) moved to Africa. I cried at this ending! I so wanted him to continue teaching us in another book. Any chance of a sequel??

I have ordered two more of your books and will begin reading them soon. Thank you for the blessing you’ve bestowed on humanity by sharing your unique spiritual insight and keen writing. Please keep up this holy work!

Writing is the hardest thing I do these days. As much as I love it when I get the chance, so many other things encroach on my time to write. I currently have a number of projects I’m trying to complete, and encouragement like this always helps me clear the time to keep writing. I spent most of the day Tuesday with a friend that has an amazing idea for a book that taps some of my BridgeBuilders passion from years ago. That’s all I needed was another project to add to the six others I’m working on. God will definitely have to sort out what gets done and what doesn’t.

And for those interested in the Jake Movie, we are still seeking the best way to fund that. A lot of connections keep happening that encourage us to press forward, so we’re hopeful, but as yet far from the finish line. I’m content to leave this in Father’s hands. If he wants us to do it, he’ll have a way to fund it.

]]>https://www.lifestream.org/jake-colsen-rides/feed/110561What a Way to Begin!https://www.lifestream.org/what-a-way-to-begin/
https://www.lifestream.org/what-a-way-to-begin/#commentsMon, 13 Nov 2017 19:04:20 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=10549Last Friday afternoon I got the chance to baptize my granddaughter. She’s just turning thirteen and this was her choice something she’s been talking about for the past few months. Just before I left for Europe she asked me if I would baptize her when I got back. Would I? My heart melted. When I […]

]]>Last Friday afternoon I got the chance to baptize my granddaughter. She’s just turning thirteen and this was her choice something she’s been talking about for the past few months. Just before I left for Europe she asked me if I would baptize her when I got back. Would I? My heart melted.

When I asked her why, she said, “I want to follow Jesus with all my heart.” I don’t do much baptizing these days, never did actually. Even back in the day when I was a pastor we always encouraged the one being baptized to ask the person that was most influential in his or her decision to follow Jesus, or one who has been most helpful on the early parts of their journey, to baptize them.

It was great! Even though that scared a lot of people to be asked we would always walk them through it and then they were thrilled to be a part of it. Lots of people experienced the joy of getting to baptize someone into this awesome journey. Many parents baptized their kids, and we never made a “service” out of it. We’d start with the baptism and what it meant and finish up with celebrating the Lord’s supper together. They were always parties on the lake, by a stream, or in a backyard pool. Friends and family would celebrate together and often share a meal after.

I hear a lot of people out-of-the-box people diss baptism as an old relic from a bygone era. They see it as an empty ritual and argue whether or not it is essential for salvation, since it isn’t a normal part of our culture. After all, the thief on the cross wasn’t baptized, they’ll say. I wouldn’t argue that baptism is essential, but I do think the Scriptures make clear it is preferable. Jesus set the example with his own and we know his followers we’re also baptized. The early church saw baptism as the means of entry into the kingdom of God, which is why the Ethiopian eunuch wanted Philip to baptize him immediately in Acts 8.

This is how it played out after Pentecost:

When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.”Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. (Acs 2: 37-42)

I don’t see baptism as a ritual, even though many seem to practice it that way. And even though some have abandoned it altogether for a “sinner’s prayer” and a get-out-of-hell free card, I see salvation not as the resolution of our destiny but as a door into an ever-deepening relationship with the Father through the work of the Son, by the power of the Spirit. As such baptism becomes a powerful event in yielding to the work of Jesus and being resurrected into a new adventure in his glory. (See Romans 6:1-14)

When the heart is convicted and people want to know him, Peter says we first repent, which means to abandon our agenda for our lives and embrace him and his agenda for us. Then he said be baptized “for the forgiveness of sins”. Does that mean sins aren’t forgiven without baptism? Of course not. But baptism is a cleansing of heart and soul, a washing away of the old life and opens the door to a new one.

Then, Peter says, you will receive the baptism of the Spirit. So there are two things going on here. First, a baptism of water to demonstrate on the outside the transition going on inside. Then, there is baptism of the Spirt, where we are connected to him and empowered to go on a different kind of journey learning how to know him and to follow him. So after baptizing someone one we always lay on hands and pray for the baptism of the Spirit, which will make them alive to his reality.

Will it make them perfect? Not even close. It’s the beginning of a journey, not the end of one.

Sharing that moment this weekend with my granddaughter was one of the most treasured memories of my life. Seeing her young faith and desire to follow Jesus touched me deeply and praying for the Spirit to fill her heart and guide her journey reminded me just how amazing this moment is.

If you’ve never been baptized, do it! Find someone influential in your journey and ask them to do it with you. Invite some friends over. You may feel a bit weird, especially if you’ve been a “believer” for awhile, but don’t leave out what this process does to mark the transition from the kingdom of darkness to the. kingdom of light. Don’t do it out of condemnation or fear, but when you know Jesus is the one you want to follow, remember this is how he began his journey, too. And ask him to baptize you with his Spirit as you do.

When Jesus was baptized, a voice from heaven spoke, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” I always look for a dove and listen for a voice at baptism. I think Jesus got it that way because God needed people around him to know. But I do think God whispers the same thing in our hearts as well. Jesus wasn’t beloved and pleasing because he had maintained his perfection until 30. The words were not something he earned, but the expression of the heart of his Father for him as his Son.

Don’t we all need to start that way? I spent over 40 years of my life thinking that I had to earn my way to pleasing my Father. Now I know that he has always delighted in me, and been pleased with me as his son even when I’m lost in my own brokenness. Brokenness doesn’t make you less loved, if anything it makes us even more endearing to his heart.

That’s what Aimee needed to know on Friday, “This is my daughter, whom I love, with her I am well pleased.”

That we are loved and pleasing to Father is what we need to know most at the start of our journey, not think we have to earn it by its end. That’s why baptism is so important, not because it fulfills something God needs, but because it fulfills something in us that we desperately need to make sense of our growing life in him.

]]>https://www.lifestream.org/what-a-way-to-begin/feed/610549A Busy But Wonderful Seasonhttps://www.lifestream.org/busy-wonderful-season/
https://www.lifestream.org/busy-wonderful-season/#commentsFri, 10 Nov 2017 19:17:46 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=10530The last few weeks have been crazy for me and I’m hopelessly behind on everything. I spent two weeks with the delightful couple above, Gert and Katia, who had it on their hearts for me to come to France and spend some time with their friends who are just seeing the French and Dutch versions […]

]]>The last few weeks have been crazy for me and I’m hopelessly behind on everything. I spent two weeks with the delightful couple above, Gert and Katia, who had it on their hearts for me to come to France and spend some time with their friends who are just seeing the French and Dutch versions of THE SHACK movie. They are native Belgians now living in the south of France. We had a 1200 mile odyssey as I arrived in the south of France and starting in Montpelier, we traveled together through Toulouse to Condom, north to Angers, stopped outside of Paris and finally arrived in Belgium for the end of our eleven-day trip. I went on to Holland for one day near The Hague with some friends before coming home Monday.

What a trip! So many conversations with so many people about so many things! Wow! And when you travel like that, staying with people every night, there’s hardly any personal time for rest or reflection, or even trying to keep up with email. However, each day was so rewarding. I have so many great memories of the people I spent time with, some I just met for the first time, others I’ve known from previous trips. It is always wonderful to return and see people growing in grace and love. I also had an encounter with a pastor who is not too fond of my books, or perhaps better said, how some in his family have responded to them. He said he wasn’t religious, but one of the the things religion does best is blind us to its tentacles shaping our lives. The next day we were with a young man who doesn’t know of God is real and in the midst of our talking, God’s love just overwhelmed his heart and with tears streaming down his face he got a taste of the reality he’s been seeking.

In addition, I got to stay in an old farm house (since remodeled) in the countryside of France that had been a winery, got to walk along the Angers river and talk about healing, and spent time contemplating the horrors of The Great War (World War I) in the battlefields of Belgium where cemeteries dot the countryside where the lives of 18 and 19 year old young men were cut short. All that was so moving. We were also in the field where the poem In Flanders Fields was written. I remember it from high school. Such a moving tribute to those who lost their lives and forever connected poppies and veterans. You can see some of my pictures below.

Then we had a showing of THE SHACK in Dutch at a congregation near Iepers and then a full day after processing some of the themes behind the theology of that story with people who were touched by it and others who had concerns about it.

Today I’m about to take a walk with Sara, my dad, our children (Andy is visiting this week from his new home in Denver), or grandchildren, and of course, the hounds! My dad is visiting this Veteran Day weekend. He is our favorite veteran. He was wounded in France in World War II. He’s visiting for a few days along with our son who has arrived from Denver. I am also celebrating my good health on the first anniversary of my open-heart surgery. I’m so grateful for what medical science can do and am back to full form. Also, Sara continues her recovery and now walks pain-free and has a newfound hope that she will get her life back. I’m so happy for her!

And between coming back from Europe and these festivities, I left for two days of a golf outing with old friends, who do this every year. We played 54 holes of golf in two days with some stiff competition. A lot of fun, but not so easy to leave Sara so soon and to fight the jet lag as well as the golf, but we had a great time.

So the weekend is full, including baptizing my granddaughter later today, a big family birthday party for our November birthdays, and then Monday I’m taking my dad back home to Central California and have a board meeting for Lifestream in Visalia. So things will keep backing up until Tuesday. These are all special days, however, and I wouldn’t miss any of it for anything.

And, yes, I know most of life isn’t lived here. Believe me Sara and I have our dark and challenging days in this broken world, which makes me appreciate seasons like this all the more. We are grateful that God is with us all the time–whether in joy or pain and learning to lean into him is the greatest joy of all. I hope you are learning that as well.

Here are some pictures from my time in Europe:

Azille, where Gert and Katia live, a small village set amidst the vineyards. Some great morning walks here through the vineyards. So lovely! I spent four nights here.

A conversation in Azille

The farmhouse with a winery in the garage in Condom, France

Dinner and dialog near Angers

Iepers, Belgium near the gate where they have been playing Taps every night since the mid 1920s at 8:00 pm to memorialize those who died in The Great War

One of the cemeteries in Belgium

World famous hotel on the beach outside of The Hague in Holland. No I didn’t stay there.

All in all these last weeks have been exhilarating and exhausting, warmly refreshing and incredibly challenging–all of it filled with joy and wonder. My heart is overwhelmed in gratitude for all that God is and how he takes shape in our lives.

]]>https://www.lifestream.org/busy-wonderful-season/feed/610530Three Years of FINDING CHURCHhttps://www.lifestream.org/three-years-finding-church/
https://www.lifestream.org/three-years-finding-church/#commentsThu, 02 Nov 2017 15:00:20 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=10459Three years ago this month, we released Finding Church: What If There Really Is Something More? I love the way it has spread out into the world and touched so many lives, encouraging them to discover the church Jesus is building in the world. To celebrate we will be making the print version of this […]

]]>Three years ago this month, we released Finding Church: What If There Really Is Something More? I love the way it has spread out into the world and touched so many lives, encouraging them to discover the church Jesus is building in the world. To celebrate we will be making the print version of this book available for $8.99 for the month of November at the Lifestream Store. You can also find it in e-book at Amazon and Barnes and Noble, or my reading it in audio at Audibles.com and iTunes.

If you haven’t had the chance to read it, or have but would like a refresher, here are some of the quotes that capture the themes of most chapters:

Jesus’ church is not a human creation. Rather, it is the fruit of the relationships of those who are part of a new creation—the redeemed race of humanity that relates to him as the head… It’s just that our conformity-based structures cannot produce the internal transformation necessary for the church to take shape among us.

Our way of organizing congregations in the twenty-first century has little in Scripture to commend it. We spend more time making the Scriptures fit our preconceived view of church, rather than deriving our understanding of church from the Scriptures themselves.

Our view of “church life” today has far more to do with institutional identity, meetings, rituals, ethics, and doctrines than demonstrating what a community of Godly love looks like. From that foundation, it is difficult to find our way into the reality of Christ’s church. Maybe he didn’t talk so much about the church because it was not the means to his end. What if he knew it was simply the fruit of his working and that it takes shape quite easily wherever people learn to follow him?

When that longing surfaces either as a hunger for something more real, or as a restlessness that something is wrong, it presents us with a critical moment of choice. Do I stick to the comfort of what I’ve always known or take the risk to follow my heart into a more undefined place? Unfortunately most people will encourage you to suppress your hunger. I’ve talked to hundreds of church leaders who have had similar moments of being pulled between what Scripture invited them to and what they have to do to keep their institutional position. Many have told me they would love to embrace a different reality but can’t figure out how to make it work. With sad and heavy eyes, they’ve turned to me, “I’ve decided just to make the best of what I already have.”

I did that, too, for way too many years, settling into a comfortable, though often lifeless, regimen and ignoring the deeper call of my heart. There were always enough breadcrumbs in the routine to give me enough hope that if we could just find the right alignment all would be well. For a long time I thought it was my fault, knowing how lazy I could be as well as the temptations and motivations that rumbled just beneath the surface. I kept trying harder to be a better person. As genuine as that may seem it always proved a side road back into the swamp of failed self-effort and frustration.

Can you imagine the kind of community that would be unleashed on the world if the people in it were more preoccupied with the realities of Jesus’ kingdom—faith, hope, and love—than they were with their own provision, significance, and power? It would be amazing but it is not something human effort can produce. Our response to the appetites of the flesh and our passion for his kingdom are more visceral. Healing does not come by knowing better and trying harder.

Those growing in a relationship with Jesus, however, don’t share the same angst. They realize the structures of this world cannot accomplish the work of the kingdom and that Jesus’ reality supersedes the things that are valued in this age. Trusting God for their resource, they don’t have to manipulate people for money. Resting in God’s acceptance of their lives, they don’t look for their validation by what others think or say. And, knowing that Jesus gets the last word on everything, they see no need to claim power over others.

This is his to win, not ours to find. I have been winning my granddaughter into my love for nine years now. I didn’t expect her to figure it out on her own or to trust me because I told her so. I convince her by how I treat her. It may be God’s greatest joy to win people into his affection, no less for you than a woman at a well, a greedy tax collector in a tree, or a terrified fisherman who had betrayed him. Love reaches out to the beloved and seeks to win them into a relationship. That’s what courtship is about and hopefully marriage, too. Every day presents more opportunity to win a heart, even if it takes a lifetime.

It may be what John referred to when he said, “We know and rely on the love God has for us.” (I John 4:16) Some translations draw out a deeper meaning: “We have come to know . . . ,” indicating a process. So often our confidence in his love is thwarted by our fears and doubts and circumstances we don’t understand. I love the picture of an older John rejoicing that at last he had “come to know” and “come to rely” on the love God had for him.

I am continually amazed at the places my growing confidence in Father’s love leads me. How great can it grow? I don’t know, but I look forward to each day to discover what new freedom overtakes me and how that leads to treating others differently. Three words help me recognize God’s gravity that replaces the pressures of the world: compassion, trust, and rest. As these emerge from our growing relationship with God, we’ll find it easier to cooperate with God’s working. They are the headwaters that allow us to join the flow of his church.

In the old creation, people tend to be more self-focused: trying to be loved, rather than loving. They are more preoccupied with meetings and activities than they are with sharing friendship. The relationships they do have are mostly task-based, and only last as long as they are working or meeting together. The family way, however, encourages friendships to flourish because people enjoy being together and genuinely care about one another. They share laughter even through difficult circumstances. They serve one another in times of need, and that even extends to strangers in need who cross their paths.

God never intended for us to live in such conflict and isolation. His desire has always been for a world where genuine affection and concern for others replace our selfish ambition. From the beginning it has been his purpose to bring everything that sin separated, including heaven and earth, into one glorious, new whole. He wasn’t the author of conflict or violence, but the one seeking to rescue the creation from its brokenness. His plan was to bring “everything together under Jesus himself.” (Ephesians 1:9-10) Where does that begin? Inside each and every human heart that allows him to begin to untwist the powers of self and shame so that we no longer fall victim to our insecurities. Where we trust his unfolding purpose we will no longer fight for our own, and when his desires become ours we’ll find a growing unity with others who are also living in that new creation. This is the community our hearts long for, a society that lives outside the human need to manage power.

But his temple keeps rising. Each added person only reflects his multifaceted glory with more accuracy and will confound the wisdom of the world by the power of its love and the simplicity of its life. Wherever people are learning to live in his love and love others, the temple rises. Whenever people learn to listen to him instead of the manipulative voices of religious leaders, the temple rises. However people find ways to work together by laying their lives down in kindness and generosity, the temple rises.

In fact, making attendance an obligation may already demonstrate that we’ve lost the vitality of real community and have become mired in mundane rituals, demands for conformity, or internal conflicts that alienate people. Jesus talked about his kingdom being a pearl of great price. If people saw its reality, they would give up anything to be part of it. Living in him and sharing that life with others isn’t drudgery. It fulfills the deepest longings of the human heart.

Everything good does not require a commitment to do what we dislike, but to the simple joy of embracing what we truly love. Obligation presumes that our desires are despicable and lauds those who give up their desires to choose painful tasks for God. But what if your deepest desires are Godly? If he wants your joy to be full then he knows best how to fulfill you. What God identifies as sin are the desires that don’t really belong to us. They have been twisted to offer us immediate gratification or false security, while they lead us down a road to certain destruction— spiritually, relationally, and even physically.

The signal of church life is not easily found in large meetings of like-minded people, but in the engagements of growing friendships. Success is measured not by the size of the group but by the quality of relationships. Instead of complicating people’s time with meetings and commitments, real church life is more readily experienced with authentic friendships in informal settings that don’t require large resources to drive centralized programs.

You can’t share life with hundreds of people sitting in a managed group. You can share a cause, a task even, but relationships won’t grow for the lack of time and energy to explore them. Isn’t that why people feel so disconnected in large congregations and complain that the relationships they do have remain superficial?

A cursory view of history makes it clear that a hierarchy of human leadership does more to disfigure the church than it does to protect it. Perhaps the severest price we’ve paid for doing so is that we no longer see authority resting in Jesus but in the institutions we have created by our own hand—perhaps not so dissimilar from the idols crafted in ancient Israel to replace the God they could not see.

When people who are on a spiritual journey get near each other, the church takes expression. He had no idea what simple joy and life could come out of being together and how fruitful it would be, not only for that week but also for years to come because of the new friendships that were formed. I’ve had the joy of watching a web of relationships grow around the world and see how those connections enrich Christ’s work and allow us to see him more fully.

For that to continue, however, we all have to resist the temptation to throw a structure around it and start monthly, quarterly, or yearly meetings. By doing so we sow the seeds for a new faction in the family and seriously damage the spontaneity of his work by putting a human agenda to it. As excited as I was to be part of this Wicklow gathering a few years ago, I was thrilled that at its end no one pressed to make it a yearly event or formalize a network. There have been other gatherings in other places as people felt inspired to plan and host them, but there has been no attempt to get the same people together at the same place. In fact many on this journey have a hesitation to repeat anything only because it was wonderful the first time, given our propensity to value routine over reality. Tradition is the attempt to get God to repeat something he did once, again and again to the same results. But the breath of the Spirit is too unique for such attempts and we only end up capturing ourselves in routines long after he has moved on.

The power of the church lies in the unity they find together—men and women loving and working together wholeheartedly because they have found their life and joy in him instead of their own preferences and ideas. How could any conformity-based system produce this unity when people are following the expectations of others rather than living out of an ever-expanding heart? Without that, real unity cannot exist. (p. 154)

Jesus didn’t pray for conformity, but a unity that can only arise out of lives transformed by his glory. The answer to this prayer fulfills God’s passion in the earth and by it the world will know that the Father loves us as much as he loves his Jesus. When people out of diverse backgrounds come to complete unity of heart, purpose, and focus, God is unveiled in a way nothing else can accomplish. (p. 155)

That’s why the term leadership is difficult to use inside the new creation. People see it as a management role instead of a gift to help others. So when Paul wrote about elders, overseers, or ministry gifts, he’s talking about those who help others mature, not those who manage institutions. And when we take the words of Hebrews to “Obey your leaders and submit to their authority,” (13:17) and apply them to old creation constructs, we get distorted views of leadership and end up seeking out the wrong people to lead. How often has this Scripture been used by so-called leaders to great harm as a divine sanction for whatever power they wanted to hold over others? Rather than demanding unquestioned submission, the writer was simply appealing to the younger ones to not make it difficult for their older brothers and sisters to help them grow.

So while a local congregation in and of itself cannot fulfill all that Paul promised us about the church Jesus is building, it can be a place where people discover his reality and engage in the kinds of relationships in which his church takes expression. It’s often where people go when they first open to God, and if the teaching is sound, it can provide them with the foundation for a spiritual journey. Corporate expressions of praise and adoration can provide a place for people to engage the transcendent God and opportunities for fellowship can open a door to friendships that can last a lifetime.

However, we’d be less than honest not to wrestle with the fact that their institutional frameworks are remnants of an old creation and thus their priorities are often at odds with the priorities of the new. So while they can facilitate the writing of the creeds to define critical points of theology, an overdependence on them can easily rob people of partaking of God’s mystery as he makes himself known in the course of their daily lives.

You will find the church easiest when you stop looking for an “it,” and simply love the people God has put around you. Start with growing friendships instead of trying to find a group to join. It was no accident that the church began at Pentecost without any strategy or preconceived notion of what it would look like. They weren’t told to start Sunday services or have midweek home groups. They simply did what their new experience with the Gospel and their engagement with his Spirit led them to do. Learn to follow him and then engage others around you with the reality of his kingdom and watch how that bears fruit.

Yes, there is a vast pasture of God’s life and provision to be explored beyond the conformity of our institutions. It is a risk, to be sure, but one with incredible rewards. Perhaps the biggest change is that it forces people to move from being a passive part in someone else’s machine, to someone who actively participates in his unfolding kingdom. You don’t get to follow someone else’s instructions anymore, but instead you have to be more intentional in all aspects of connecting with him and his church.

But those are the sheep I want to romp with in the Father’s care. What can happen out of that simple reality could set a world on fire, just like it did the first time.

]]>https://www.lifestream.org/three-years-finding-church/feed/310459Who Is to Blame?https://www.lifestream.org/who-is-to-blame/
https://www.lifestream.org/who-is-to-blame/#commentsFri, 27 Oct 2017 17:00:36 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=10485The quote below was written by a Jewish rabbi and theologian in 1955—thats two years after I was born. And yet, this process has continued, not just for Judaism, but also for Western Christianity. I hear complaints all the time about the decline of Christian influence in the societies of western culture. by Christians who […]

]]>The quote below was written by a Jewish rabbi and theologian in 1955—thats two years after I was born. And yet, this process has continued, not just for Judaism, but also for Western Christianity.

I hear complaints all the time about the decline of Christian influence in the societies of western culture. by Christians who blame it on increased secularism, the agenda of cultural elites, and the distortion of media for its losses, but we really need look no further than a mirror that reflects how we’ve taken the wonder of the Gospel and reduced it to another human-engineered religion.

It is customary to blame secular science and anti-religious philosophy for the eclipse of religion in modern society. It would be more honest to blame religion for its own defeats. Religion declined not because it was refuted, but because it became irrelevant, dull, oppressive, insipid. When faith is completely replaced by creed, worship by discipline, love by habit; when the crisis of today is ignored because of the splendor of the past; when faith becomes an heirloom rather than a living fountain; when religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion – its message becomes meaningless.

Abraham Joshua Heschel in God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism

The Gospel of Jesus Christ cannot be consigned to a creed, a discipline, or a habit; it is a real relationship with the Living God and when it loses that, it has nothing left to offer those around it. As G.K. Chesterton wrote in 1910, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” (What’s Wrong with the World)

When I read voices from the past challenging the irrelevance of our faith so clearly, I am amazed they had no impact. These are not obscure quotes. They are very well known, but nonetheless ignored, and the wonder of the Gospel is even more obscured in our culture today, far more by the emptiness of our religious structures than anything the world has done.

What the world needs to see is not more religion, but a people won into the love of a gracious Father, learning to walk alongside him in the unfolding circumstances of life, and being so transformed over time that in word and character they are gracious and compassionate to all, with no need to manipulate those around them, forgiving when wronged, aware of the needs of others and willing to lay down their lives for the good of another.

That’s the kingdom Jesus foresaw and its one most of the people in our day have yet to see.

]]>https://www.lifestream.org/who-is-to-blame/feed/510485To the Saints Scattered…https://www.lifestream.org/to-the-saints-scattered/
https://www.lifestream.org/to-the-saints-scattered/#commentsTue, 24 Oct 2017 17:00:46 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=10475By Wayne Jacobsen, the final chapter of a book he’s writing about The Phenomenon of the Dones To the followers of Jesus scattered throughout the world, no longer attached to a specific congregation or denomination: Greetings from one of your kind and from Jesus himself. I pray this letter finds you growing in the affection of […]

]]>By Wayne Jacobsen, the final chapter of a book he’s writing about The Phenomenon of the Dones

To the followers of Jesus scattered throughout the world, no longer attached to a specific congregation or denomination: Greetings from one of your kind and from Jesus himself. I pray this letter finds you growing in the affection of our Father, in the trust of his Son, and the wisdom and gentleness of his Spirit.

I know the way has not been easy. It never is for pioneers who move outside an established status quo in search of greater vitality and authenticity. I know most of you didn’t plan to get here; you simply followed the hunger of your heart and his drawing of your conscience until you found yourself outside the circles you used to frequent and for a while found so helpful. Some of you got pushed out for asking the wrong questions, others just stopped going wearied by the politics or how guilt and fear were used to keep people in line.

I have spent the last twenty years among those who have taken their liberty from Christianity-as-a-religion and yet continued to pursue a life in Christ as vibrant as the one he passed on to his disciples. Their journey beyond Sunday morning Christianity only confirmed their choice. The people I admire most in this world are those that follow their spiritual hunger, even when it takes them beyond the comfort of their friends and family. Religion is built on approval needs, and when someone diverges from that conformity, they meet a host of well-intentioned, if not particularly sensitive, people trying to convince them they are wrong.

Jesus knows how painful your journey is better than anyone else. It is a road he walked as well. It is so easy to sing with great passion, “Though none go with me, still I will follow,” and far more difficult to actually do it. When you do, however, I’ve no doubt it brings great joy to him knowing the risk you took to follow him down an uncertain path. Live in that joy as you keep going even if the road is more difficult than you imagined. Your pursuit will reward you in ways you maybe can’t see yet, and fulfill the deepest hungers with his reality, his love, and his freedom.

I realize many of you need no encouragement from me. You have come to know Jesus and learned to follow him apart from the religious conventions of our culture and are finding yourselves increasingly at rest in his provision and being fruitful for him where he has placed you. You have discovered that there is still a church in the world to connect with relationally that doesn’t need the political gamesmanship or the mind-numbing routines of religion. I have met many of you around the world and have been inspired by your courage to take the road less traveled and your resilience in the face of challenge, opposition and false accusations.

Others of you are either new to the journey, or haven’t settled into it yet. Here’s what I’ve learned this far into my journey:

Finding A New Trailhead

The early days of living outside our systems of religious performance can be quite painful, depending on the reason you left and if you have some supportive voices around you. Initially, you’ll feel great relief to be out of the situation that helped you make such a difficult decision. You may have hoped others would have shared in your journey and either come with you or been sympathetic to how God was leading you. Most people, however, find themselves outside alone where three critical challenges await, all of which also hold some great opportunities for growth.

Overcoming Guilt. For a while you’ll feel like you’ve lost your moorings, and your emotions will not be in synch with what you know to be true. You may know attendance at a congregation is not a requirement of our Lord Jesus, but you believed it for so long and may have looked down on others who didn’t come as regularly as you did that you’ll feel guilty when you’re not there and defensive if people ask you about it.

Guilt is the acquired baggage of religious obligation. While we know that there is no longer any condemnation for those in Christ, it’s amazing how much of our Christian experience has been driven by avoiding guilt and the disapproving glances of our fellow believers. It travels mostly unseen as long as you serve it, but when you stop it rears its ugly head. Now you’ll confront it head-on, almost every day and it will test what you know about God, yourself, and what it means to follow him. This is a great time to see Jesus destroy the power guilt and fear hold over you.

You’ll be tempted to do something to sate the guilt, or attack the systems others might enjoy in order to justify your own experience. Resist those urges. This is an important time to find your way to the cross and discover the ways of thinking that create the guilt and condemnation you feel. As you lean more deeply into the Father’s love and his wisdom you’ll find over time the guilt will lessen as will your need to tear others down to feel good about his work in you.

Dealing with Loneliness. If you were heavily involved in your local congregation you may have given it 8-10 hours per week and it gave you the illusion that you were part of something larger than yourself. Even if friendships weren’t as close as you hoped, you felt like you belonged and that masked the loneliness that comes to the fore when you find yourself more isolated. Out of sight, out of mind is how most congregations work. People will miss your contributions more than they’ll miss you.

Now you wonder if anyone was really a friend and does anyone care about you now. That is multiplied if you suffer the sting of judgment that comes if some of your closest friends and family begin top question your salvation, or at least view you as a reclamation project to get you back on the straight and narrow. It may even cause you to doubt you’re making the right choices.

That disappointment grows when new friendships or connections don’t happen as fast as you hoped. Again, the temptation is to do something to fix the problem. Some seek out another congregation, try to find a house church near them or even start their own. But the answer to your loneliness is not “out there” somewhere. It is not in a group you can find, a program you can institute, or a new guru to follow. You’re not looking for a better way to do church, but a better way to embrace his reality. You will find loneliness first satisfied in him and then it will spill into the relationships he will bring across your path.

You may not see it yet and you may even feel as if he has abandoned you, but he has not. He has not led you this far to forsake you and he has not begun a work in you that he will not complete. This is the time to let your relationship with him deepen so you won’t use others to fill the place only he can fill. This is a great season to learn how to seek him, to listen to him, and to follow him and as you do he will swallow up your loneliness in a vibrant communion with him and then you’re ready for more healthy relationships in which true community can grow.

Losing Your Anger. Departing a congregation is often laced with anger—at disappointed expectations, betrayal by people you thought loved you, or finally seeing through some of the false things you were taught to keep you loyal and contributing your time and resources. You’ll want to blame people for lying to you or about you, and strike out against organized religion in general falling prey to an us-versus-them dichotomy that will prove destructive over time.

This is all very natural to justify an extremely difficult decision you had to make and to navigate the self-doubt you will invariably experience. But you’ll want to let it bleed out as soon as you can, which may still take months. Hopefully you can find a safe person who has been down this road before you to vent your pain without it overwhelming those who don’t understand it and will only judge you for it.

In God’s heart this journey is not about fixing “the church”, but drawing you into a deeper relationship with him and letting love over time still the anger of your heart and replace it with joy in his provision and compassion for others, even those who hurt you. This all may take years, so don’t be hard on yourself if the emotions persist. Just keep leaning into him and let his love win you out of feeling like someone else’s victim. No, life isn’t fair and people’s failures will make your life more difficult, but he has a way to navigate you through all of that and give you the life that really is life. And keep in mind that your failures add difficulty to others as well.

Growing in him is a journey, its vitality will ebb and flow at times and there will be seasons where you’ll get distracted, but when he makes you aware guiltlessly lean back his direction.

A real relationship with him doesn’t try to get from him what you want, but to receive what he wants to give you each day. Keep engaging him and don’t pitch a tent anywhere thinking you’ve arrived. Our destination is not in this temporal age. Avoid simply falling into the routines of life and miss how this kingdom yearns to take shape in you and through you find more space in the world.

If you have other believers around you who are on this journey, seek for their help in learning how to ignore guilt, satisfy your loneliness inside of Jesus, and to help you discover how to follow him as a real presence in your life. As you overcome these three challenges and you will find yourself on a very different journey.

Settling into a Different Journey

Now you find yourself on a very different journey. Instead of meeting the expectations of the institution you belonged to, you may find yourself adrift without them. It was so easy when your security came from regular attendance, following the rules, speaking the party line and gaining the approval from others for your diligent efforts. Without those you’ll need to give attention to your connection with God himself. You will want to learn how to recognize his fingerprints in your day, and his words in the recesses of your thoughts.

Don’t look for quick fixes here or rush the process. You cannot learn it in a book; you have to let it unfold in the reality of your circumstances. His curriculum is not in a workbook somewhere, or a university course; it is in the events, emotions, and thoughts of daily life as he comes alongside you to show you what’s real and what is an illusion as you engage with his Spirit and the Scriptures.

Here are three things I use to keep my course:

Relational. If you’re new to this journey and still disoriented by the change from performance-based Christianity, to an affectionate relationship with The Father, Jesus, and the Spirit, take all the time you need. Learn to let the Father enjoy your presence, and for you to enjoy his. If you need space from “religious voices” that seek to promote guilt and fear, take some distance from them. Jesus will show you who you are free to love, and what relationships draw you out of his affection and back into performance.

Eugene Peterson called it, “the unforced rhythms of grace.” Religious obligation and activity can so easily distract us from the purity and simplicity of how Jesus expresses himself to us. God already knows you and now wants you to know him. Jesus died to grant us full and confident access to him. It is not quick and it is not easy to learn how to live in that reality. He has to reshape internally the ways you were taught to live—twisted by indulging your desires, haunted by the insecurities of not knowing you were loved, exploited by the selfishness of others, or manipulated by the lies and fears of religious obligation.

Now he will teach you how to rest in his love, how your growing trust in his desires for you and his purpose in this age will change the way you navigate the world, and how your growing dependence on the power of his Spirit living in you will draw your eyes away from what’s temporal to that which is eternal. Everything God wants to do in you, and all he wants to do through you will grow naturally out of your engagements with him and the people he brings into your life.

If you can find them, spend time with others who stimulate awareness in your own life. Don’t be discouraged if this takes some time or if that initially happens across great distances. Social media and blogs comments might be a good place to connect as well, even if you can’t be face-to-face. Beware the cheap fix of on-line networks or getting an identity from following a popular author or teacher. That may comfort you with a false security that it will soon evaporate.

In time, you’ll begin to meet people around you on a similar trajectory. Jesus is inviting an increasing number of people back to himself and creating a people who will follow the Lamb wherever he goes. You’ll find those faster, however, if you’re just looking for growing friendships with those already around you, not by finding or building a group of like-minded people. Keep your eyes open for a hungry seeker at work, an open-hearted neighbor, someone you meet randomly, or connect with at another gathering or mission outreach. Fellowship grows from friendships a lot easier than friendship grows from meetings.

Truth-full. Don’t just throw out the illusions without rethinking where God’s truth lies. De-constructing the false messages of religion that feed performance and destroy community is a painful process. Not everyone survives it with a passion for truth. Once you find out some of the things you were taught aren’t true, it’s easy to throw out everything or just hold on to those things that you find personally comforting. Many have taken this course into the theological weeds and gotten lost in the skepticism about God and his truth.

Truth will often disturb us before it sets us free. Scripture underlines how hungering for truth is the most important component to grasping it. Don’t seek voices who say what you want to be true, ask the Father to reveal his truth to you. Search your heart, search the Scriptures, and interact with others in conversation and through books and articles in a way that will help you re-construct an understanding of who God truly is and his purpose in the world. God didn’t bring you out of religious performance to leave you drifting on the winds of circumstance, but to draw you into a relationship that is not only intimate but transforming.

You won’t have all the answers and you’ll lose your need to convince others that you see it better than they do. You’ll learn to walk with him in the truth that is sometimes challenging and painful, but it will always draws your heart more closely to him. Don’t expect this truth to be as much measured by principles you can follow, but in learning to discern in your unfolding day which decisions leads to life and which leads to death. This is where he always wanted to write his will, not in precepts to follow, but learning to sense the pleasure of the Spirit in the direction he desires for us and the restlessness of Spirit when he’s drawing us away from our own selfishness. That’s how you learn to walk with him.

Purposeful. When you are part of a religious program everything is provided for you. You have fellowship because you sit in a congregation, worship because you sing, and engage spread the kingdom because your congregation gives to overseas missions. But those are simply shadows of a greater reality. To embrace those realities now you will need to make some intentional choices to follow his leadings, embrace his purpose in circumstances around you, and to live focused more on others than yourself.

It is easy for all of us to drift into complacency regarding spiritual realities. Life takes so much out of us just to complete our job responsibilities and care for our families. It also distracts us with too many entertainment options that it’s easy to end up coasting spiritually into emptiness. Growing in him and flowing with his purpose won’t happen by accident, but it also won’t happen by human ingenuity. I realize that sounds like a contradiction. What you will want to do is to learn to live in the moment, with a growing trust in Spirit’s ability to lead and guide you. Being intentional is not doing what we prefer or even think best, but to see where love leads us and where his Spirit nudges us.

When you stop serving someone else’s vision it will be easier to recognize his leading. Let him grow your capacity to love so that you’ll have a heart of compassion for the broken, and be a champion of justice for the oppressed. Confront evil where it exploits the innocent, quickly repair broken relationships where possible with forgiveness and honesty, and treat others the way you want them to treat you.

Walking by the Spirit comes with a suspicious eye toward our own human effort, but an intentional eye on the Father and flowing with his activity in the world.

Helping Others Find Their Journey

The time is coming when all that you’ve discovered will not just be valuable for you, but will overflow from you to so many others who are hungering for the same realities that lie beyond the walls of their own experience. Jesus designed his kingdom to work that way. As freely as you receive, you look for ways to freely give to others. As you find more relaxed footing in your relationship with him look for ways to be a blessing to others.

I’m convinced this is what it means to pastor the flock of God. It doesn’t require a degree or a job managing an institution; it is simply the ability and desire to help others connect with Jesus and encourage them as they learn to follow him. God works through the simplest people who have sincere hearts, not the highly talented or those who seek influence. Sharing your life freely is not a task you have to do, but one that will flow out of your heart naturally as you make yourself available to him:

Live lovingly. What I enjoy most about this journey is that all the obligations and expectations I lived under were replaced with a sense of endearment. I don’t follow God because I’m afraid of him, but because I want what he wants for me. I don’t do what I do in fear that he will punish me but because I want to share in the work he is doing around me. Obligation was replaced with joy and though I can’t stop and love everyone I pass on a given day, I’ve always got an eye out for the person God wants me to engage or to serve in some way.

Live freely. There will be no end of well-meaning people who will want to push their preferences and expectations on you. You can be gracious as you politely say, “No, thank you.” Embrace what God gives you, and turn from those things others want to force on you. Life is too short to let people manipulate you even with the best of their religious intentions. You are to live to him, free from the tyranny of your own spiritual ambitions, and free from others’ as well.

Live generously. Keep an eye out for the needs and welfare of others, sharing whatever you might have to be a blessing in someone else’s life. Build friendships and share those friendships with others by connecting people who will be blessed to know each other. This is how his church grows in the world. Don’t just love those who can love you back, but take time with people who do not yet have any capacity for love, so that they can see him in you.

Live genuinely. No one needs you to pretend to be someone you’re not or further down the road than you are. We best help people when we let them look into the reality of our lives to see both where God has shaped his life in us and where we still struggle. Impress people with your honesty not by pretending to be further down the road than you really are. Sharing your own doubts and failures are as important as telling others how God makes himself known to you. None of us has it all together and authenticity laced with humility creates the vulnerable environment where the best conversations happen. It will free you to love and to honesty without the need to fix others or make them part of your agenda.

Live justly. Life is inherently unfair and it is somehow in the nature of powerful people to exploit others for their own gain and notoriety. The kingdom comes to bind up the brokenhearted, to free the oppressed, and to help the poor and downtrodden. Keep an eye out for those whom the culture exploits and be a champion for compassion and justice. Don’t make conformity the currency of relationship, but care and concern. You cannot love all the people in the world, so love well those God puts before you each day.

In Christ Alone

Jesus is doing an amazing thing in our day; he is taking his church back. He’s calling people from every corner of this world to find him as their sole allegiance. Some of those are inside traditional congregations, and many others he is inviting outside to teach them another way to live and grow.

The truth be told, we are all part of the saints scattered, even those who regularly attended a local congregation. The saints have been scattered for a long time, divided by institutions, doctrines, leaders, and programs each believing their way is the best. For those of us who have moved beyond Sunday gatherings as the focus of our faith, we need to take care that we guard our hearts to explore the wonder of the whole body of Christ as she is in the world. Almost every group that has splintered off of Christian institutions in the past have gone on to create their own, looking down on those who didn’t live it the same way they did.

It would seem the courage it takes to leave religious obligation easily bends toward pride and an air of superiority if we’re not careful. Yes, our institutional systems can be deeply flawed as they try to express God’s reality in the world, but that doesn’t mean we need to condemn them or think less of those who attend them. Our world is touched for the better by many of those congregations. Though it may not be the best way for your hungers to be met, resist the desire to reject others who see it differently. Don’t think your path is their path or that those not on it can’t know and follow the God you’re growing to know. He has many sheep and he does not lead all on the same path.

Always keep in mind that it is Jesus’ desire to reconcile all things to himself, and thus all of us to each other. This is the unity he prayed for with such passion. That we would all be one, as he and the Father are one. We have too long looked for that to come from our institutions or our agreed-upon doctrines, but that approach has failed us spectacularly. The unity Jesus prayed for can only come through transformed lives as we let God’s kind of love permeate our own hearts and free us to live with increasing selflessness and generosity in a world that knows too little of either.

Give yourself to what leads to authentic unity. Remember this is his work not yours, so be patient and don’t think you will have to compromise his work in you to love others who are on a different journey. Don’t be afraid to follow your heart, and encourage others to follow theirs as well. While you will often be judged maliciously, don’t resolve your pain by judging back. Bring those accusations to God and leave them there. If he is not asking you to change, don’t let others press you towards it.

Let all kinds of people into your life to see what loving them might do. Those who criticize how you live your life, may not be against the Jesus we love and seek to follow. Don’t exalt yourself because God has given you more to see, use it as a way to serve others so that they will have a chance to see it, too.

This is the trajectory he invites all his children on and if it has taken you outside the walls of institutionalism it was not to separate you from his people, but to draw you more deeply into the life that truly is life and to free you to share that love without any borders. His purpose was not to leave you isolated and scattered in the world, but increasingly transformed by love so that he can knit you into the fabric of his church as she is taking shape around the world today.

And she is taking shape in ways most people miss. Wherever I travel in the world I meet people who are really learning to live a journey in Christ that is transforming them from the need to serve themselves and to a more generous heart for others. These are the stories that thrill my soul and give me hope. They are being led by Jesus often in direct contradiction to their own self-interest. Soon they will be knit together by his Spirit in ways we cannot yet conceive, but will speak of his glory far more than our own ingenuity.

Let’s take care that we do not exalt anything above Christ and Christ alone, the hope of glory for every individual. Don’t give people a reason to be distracted by your pet doctrines, cute terminology, a specific program that may have been useful for you but may not be for them. Focus on him and his reality and watch him reveal himself in almost every relationship you have. Don’t fragment his family because you want to make a name for yourself, to brand an identity, or to carve off a market share for your ministry.

Share freely as God cares for you. Yearn for the day when we will be truly one flock with one Shepherd. As long as we have other humans between us and our compassionate High Priest, we will continue to live splintered into discordant factions. The world is not surprised by such

But imagine what it would think if they really saw the followers of Christ loving each other deeply, from the heart. There he will be revealed in ways that will draw the most calloused sinner to recognize who he is. And then we won’t be scattered anymore, but one body permeating every corner of our world with the life and love of Jesus.

__________________

This is the final chapter in a series called The Phenomenon of the Dones by Wayne Jacobsen who is the author of Finding Churchand host of a podcast at TheGodJourney.com. You can read the first half here and subsequent parts below. It will eventually be made into a book for people to read more easily.

]]>https://www.lifestream.org/to-the-saints-scattered/feed/1910475Kenya: Expanding Irrigation to a New Villagehttps://www.lifestream.org/kenya-expanding-irrigation-new-village/
https://www.lifestream.org/kenya-expanding-irrigation-new-village/#commentsMon, 23 Oct 2017 17:04:10 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=10468As I get ready to leave for Europe today, I want to catch you up to speed on our activities in Kenya. The firstfruits of harvest at Ngetut Farm can be seen above. This is the fruit of a lot of work and generous donations from many of you. They are so happy now to […]

]]>As I get ready to leave for Europe today, I want to catch you up to speed on our activities in Kenya. The firstfruits of harvest at Ngetut Farm can be seen above. This is the fruit of a lot of work and generous donations from many of you. They are so happy now to have a way to grow their own food in a parched land using the well we drilled three years ago and the new irrigation system we helped them install three months ago. blessed at their joy.

These people have been staving for years with incredibly limited resource. Can you imagine what it must mean to look at the growing plants and know this is from God’s generosity as well as their hard work. They prepped the land, planted the seeds, and are now enjoying their first harvest.

This is their report:

Irrigation in North Pokot {Ngetu Farm} is going on well, the crops are also growing very well, brother Joram the farm worker is teaching the community and involving the committee for coaching in agriculture.

As I was there, the elders from the village where we built the school, sent the delegation of elders just walking, guided by the committee, they came in Ngetut irrigation project purposely of requesting us if we can help them to do the same. (See picture t right) I listened to everybody share about the Almighty God. It is a great evangelism to this work. I interacted with them and I was so happy after hearing that many of them were involved to help the Ngetut people for digging and clearing the bush.

As you know brother Wayne, these people understanding is very low , they were thinking that after clearing there bush we would come immediately and fix the irrigation. They cleared the bush last month but we talk with them that irrigation project needs a process of communication and planning as well as getting the feedback from you. It is not a matter where we start in our own idea. What touched me so much is about the matters of the school nutritional value but I told them to pray and believe almighty God to provide.

This is the first achievement we have seen in the side of vegetables, but for the sweet potatoes and other crops we will updates you when time come. What was your suggestion concerning this? We believe strongly that irrigation progress it only the way which will give out long-term solution to this people.

About Forkland school, renovation and repair is going on I will update you soon, thank you very much for the great help. You can go through the below picture

Vegetables from this plot of land are not only going too feed their community, but the surplus is being sold to a school to help generate further income. We feel like we have enough track record here now to be able to move ahead on the second irrigation project for the people of Chemnyon Village, who helped so much in the preparing of the land with the Ngetut people. We are sending money this week. We also support the Forkland School near Bungoma, a place where orphan children are being educated. They had a major flood that wiped out housing for some of the kids who live there and it had to be rebuilt. That’s what Thomas is referring to above.

Our coaches in Pokot have told us that these farming operations are essential to these tribes becoming self-sustaining and not reliant on outside resource. So as we commit another $33,000 to help build a second irrigation project, your gifts and prayers will be welcomed again. If there ever was a time you wanted to genuinely help poor people, without anyone else siphoning off money for administrative fees or other benefit, this is it. All contributions are tax-deductible in the US. And as always, every dollar you send goes to the need in Kenya. We do not (nor do they) take out any administrative or money transfer fees. Please see our Sharing With the World page at Lifestream. You can either donate with a credit card there, or you can mail a check to Lifestream Ministries • 1560 Newbury Rd Ste 1 • Newbury Park, CA 91320. Or if you prefer, we can take your donation over the phone at (805) 498-7774.

Thank you on behalf of the people of Pokot for your gifts and prayers on their behalf.

]]>https://www.lifestream.org/kenya-expanding-irrigation-new-village/feed/410468The Arrogance That Blinds Ushttps://www.lifestream.org/arrogance-blinds-us/
https://www.lifestream.org/arrogance-blinds-us/#commentsTue, 17 Oct 2017 22:18:35 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=10453During Sara’s recovery, which is going fantastically by the way, we found ourselves watching two different TV series. The first was Turn, the true story of spies for General George Washington during the Revolutionary War. I’ll warn you it is a bit risqué in places, but we loved this series with an engaging story based […]

]]>During Sara’s recovery, which is going fantastically by the way, we found ourselves watching two different TV series. The first was Turn, the true story of spies for General George Washington during the Revolutionary War. I’ll warn you it is a bit risqué in places, but we loved this series with an engaging story based in actual events, beautiful cinematography and wonderful actors. We were drawn into the story and marveled at the risk people had to take if this country was going to find it’s way to freedom from the Crown in England and have a chance to be it’s own country. And the conflict those suffered who were in America but didn’t want to forsake England. Who then is really the patriot, and who is committing treason? When you see the mistakes that were made on both sides, you realize wars like this often turn on seemingly very small events.

Then we got hooked on The Vietnam War by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. This is our war. Sara and I were in high school and college during these times and it was our classmates that fought and died in Vietnam. The soundtrack contains the songs we grew up on. Forty-five years later looking back at this powerful documentary we are having a very different perspective and set of emotions than we had living through them. Of course this documentary has its own bias that some will disagree with, but it does bring out facts that are unmistakable. It caused me look back at events I lived through with a very different perspective and a unfamiliar set of emotions.

Being children of the World War II generation my family was full on for God and country. The U.S. could do no wrong and of course the President of the United States would not go on TV and tell baldfaced lies to the American people. The kids in Vietnam were standing against the rising tide of communism in Southeast Asia, and the protestors were cowards who wouldn’t go to war. All that gets blown up in this ten-part series. I’ll warn you this one is hard to watch. Sara and I watch it in small bits until we get overwhelmed with the lies and the bloodshed. But in watching it we found out how John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard Nixon lied repeatedly to the American public about the war. Knowing it was unwinable they continued to trade our blood and treasure simply to keep their political aspirations on track. Can you imagine how bankrupt you have to be to send eighteen year-olds to their death and dismemberment just so you have a chance for re-election? And you hear this stuff in their own words on recordings they made in the White House. I’ll never look at these presidents the same way again. They betrayed the people of my generation.

And nothing about this diminishes my respect for those young men and women who were in the service at that time. As one officer said in the documentary, these young men and women were doing the same thing on behalf of their country that what has been called the Greatest Generation did for theirs. Only World War II was a more just cause and they came back heroes, whereas many Vietnam vets came back conflicted about their involvement and then despised by their country. I still stand with all Vietnam Vets who were extraordinarily courageous in the face of a political-military establishment that used them in the wrong war for the wrong reasons to support increasingly corrupt regimes in South Vietnam. But that does not take away from their bravery and service to go when called upon and risk themselves for the good of others.

As sad as this series made me, I’m grateful to look back at it all very differently, even to see the protestors and those who leaked top secret documents to show the deceit of the U.S. Government on its citizenry. They, too, risked so much to expose the lies and end the war. And I’m just shocked that I could live through such a time as a young man and been so completely blind to what was really going on. I would have shouted, “America, love it or leave it,” to the anti-war demonstrators. I would have blindly backed the President, confident none would stay in this war only for their own political gain.

Arrogance blinds us, and the problem with arrogance no one actually knows they are afflicted with it. At the time, being arrogant feels like being right. One of the quote from this documentary that really stood out to me was this:

“We are prisoners of our own experience. Many of the things we learned that worked in WWIII were not applicable in Vietnam. Combined with our over-confidence that caused us to be arrogant. It is very difficult to dispel ignorance if you retain arrogance.” –Sam Wilson, Army officer

That last sentence can apply to almost every arena of your life. There’s an ungodly symbiosis between ignorance and arrogance, each feeding the other. Few of us would claim to know everything, but when we’re blindly confident that our own experience has given us all the information we need to determine what’s true around us, we have fallen into the trap. That’s applicable not just to this war, but almost anything else in our life—our thoughts about church, politics, morality, We are all ignorant of so much. I guess the best we can do is try not to mix it with arrogance, stay open to the fact that I may be wrong even about things in which I’m extremely confident, and keep looking for information that’s true, not just that which supports my preconceptions.

As Jesus said, to the Pharisees, “If the light that is in you (is really) darkness, how great is that darkness?”

How great indeed! When we call what’s dark, light we are truly lost. Humility and truth-hunting go hand-in-hand, and it would lead to better conversations with each other if we didn’t act like we already have the only facts that matter.

]]>https://www.lifestream.org/arrogance-blinds-us/feed/410453Off to Europe at the End of the Monthhttps://www.lifestream.org/off-europe-end-month/
Fri, 06 Oct 2017 19:12:34 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=10423This trip has been in the works for some time, but we wanted to make sure Sara was recovered from her surgery and able to safely handle things around here. Fortunately her recovery continues well and we sense it is time for me to take this trip to Europe. So from October 24 – November […]

]]>This trip has been in the works for some time, but we wanted to make sure Sara was recovered from her surgery and able to safely handle things around here. Fortunately her recovery continues well and we sense it is time for me to take this trip to Europe. So from October 24 – November 6, I’m going to start in the south of France, work my way up the west side through Paris and into Belgium before a brief stop in The Netherlands before I head home. I’ll be with some good friends who will be driving me and we will cover over 1200 miles in 13 days. Can anyone say Road Trip?

The movie of The Shack was recently released in French, so we’ll be spending some of this time exploring themes from the book and the movie, but more importantly we’ll be talking about our own journeys and how we can live more at rest in the Father’s love and by doing so be more transformed so that we can live free and full in the world. It will also give an opportunity for people to meet others near them on a similar journey.

There is still some flexibility in this schedule if there’s anything else God might have in mind. We are especially looking for a place to gather around Paris on November 1, if anyone has some space. Please write me if you have some ideas.

You can see all the details and get contact information on my Travel Page. Just click the site you’re interested in to get the information you need.

For those not in our target area, you’re welcome to keep both Sara, me, and this trip in your prayers if you have from.

]]>10423Revisiting The Nashville Statementhttps://www.lifestream.org/revisiting-nashville-statement/
https://www.lifestream.org/revisiting-nashville-statement/#commentsMon, 02 Oct 2017 21:29:04 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=10408A few of weeks ago I posted a blog about The Nashville Statement, and got a host of feedback from people, both those who loved what I wrote and those who thought I’d committed the unpardonable sin. It sad how angry Christians can get just by reading a different point of view. Here’s some of […]

]]>A few of weeks ago I posted a blog about The Nashville Statement, and got a host of feedback from people, both those who loved what I wrote and those who thought I’d committed the unpardonable sin. It sad how angry Christians can get just by reading a different point of view. Here’s some of what I learned in the ensuing conversation on that blog, by email and on my Facebook Page:

1. Most people really get it, at least those on my blog and Facebook feeds. There’s a growing number of people who are accepting the fact that we are living in a post-Christian culture and we will not impact it by trying to force our morality on people who don’t know the God we know. Attempting to do so in a pluralistic society only makes you look arrogant and weakens your voice. This is why even people who agree with your moral stands grow weary of your need to tell everyone else how to live their lives. We are looking for better language and approaches to help people discover who God is so that they will want to follow his ways.

2. Those who put morals first have little appreciation how arrogant their tactics appear and how that destroys any opportunity to impact the culture. Most of them think as long as you’re speaking truth you cannot be guilty of arrogance. However, Merriam Webster defines arrogance as, “an attitude of superiority manifested in an overbearing manner.” I don’t know a better definition of what I read in The Statement and what I hear from many of the so-called Bible teachers behind it. Their air of superiority makes me cringe, even though I’m in agreement with much of what they believe.

Truth can be spoken with gentleness and humility that opens doors, or with superiority that closes them. That’s why the more truth you think you know, the more humility you will need to let Jesus cultivate in your heart. There is more written in Scripture against arrogance than there are sexual sins, and that arrogance is a major deterrent to effective communication. Though Jesus had all truth he was never accused of arrogance, because humility and compassion set his course as he engaged people. And it probably helped that he didn’t write columns for the Jerusalem Post or Lifestream for that matter.

3. There is a great divide in evangelicalism between those who think we need more Law to bring people to repentance, and those think Jesus superseded that approach in his Incarnation. Is it by guilt or by goodness that the Spirit leads the lost to repentance? The problem is so many of them were won by guilt, but that only worked because they had a religious upbringing. Those without it won’t find guilt a helpful course to finding God.

They are also divided on whether human effort can conform to God’s standards, or whether God does the transforming as we invite him to live in us. I know those behind the Nashville Statement would claim only God has the power to change hearts, but their demands for other people’s compliance with their morality would suggest otherwise.

4. People really hate being within 500 feet of the ‘P’ word. And yet so much of the public perception of Christianity is more analogous to how Jesus saw the Pharisees rather than how the crowds saw Jesus. I see much of that in me in my first forty years and have even joked about needing a Pharisectomy because I was more concerned about people following the rules than knowing him.

Some even accused me of name-calling those they consider to be great theologians. I wrote (very carefully I might add) that “it seems that the Pharisees met….” I admit it’s a small distinction but nonetheless a critical one. I don’t know how these people treat others around them, but many are known beyond their borders as those who care more about rules than people. Being a Pharisee in the first century wasn’t a pejorative, except to Jesus. They were the best-read theologians of the day, the rule makers and the busybodies who made sure others followed them as well under penalty of death. They were proud of their station and even young Saul aspired to be a “Pharisee of Pharisees.” What I meant by correlating their actions to those of the Pharisees was that they seem to demonstrate more concern for sexual rules than they do for love and compassion of those Jesus saw as “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”

5. For too many the Statement has already become what I said it would—a litmus test. If you’re not wearing the “Nashville” pin on your lapel, some will accuse you of being soft on morality. They seem incapable of understanding that you can be committed to the moral claims of Scripture and at the same time not want to use civic law to discriminate against those who do not yet know the God we know.

6. People who categorically state the Bible teaches anything about being transgendered aren’t being honest with the fact that it never mentions it. There’s one verse about not wearing clothing of the opposite gender in Deuteronomy, but that is a very different application and one that is alongside other instructions God gave Israel that we don’t follow today. I realize many prefer a simpler world where everyone falls in line with what makes them comfortable, but it ignores the deep struggle and suffering that goes on in the transgendered soul. The conclusions made in The Statement are at best an extrapolation of Scripture and must be held suspect while showing compassion for those who for whatever reason in deep conflict with their anatomical gender.

7. Where is the compassion among evangelicals for people who, through no fault of their own, struggle with affections and desires outside of Scripture’s moral window. If the New Testament is true, none of us have the power to change ourselves without the redemptive power of Jesus at work in us. It’s the love and goodness of God that begins to make inroads into our hearts so that we begin to care about his will and his power to change our rebel hearts. People will beat a path to your door when you show them you care. If you treat people with contempt you become an impediment to the Gospel finding its way to them.

8. The best comment I received about this wondered if the reason conservative Protestants are so enamored with civic law, is because they refused to write a book of common order to spell out their view of morality as previous groups had done. Instead, they substituted civic law as their vehicle of morality and have had a painful time adjusting to their loss of influence as societies became more secular. They see civic law as their moral code and are frustrated when it no longer reflects their preferences in matters of sexuality and gender identity. They seem unable to understand that when you enforce theological views with the penalty of the state you become an oppressor and an advocate for discrimination.

That’s how Christianity lost its hold on the public debate as the wider culture concluded that freedom of conscience took precedence over theological demands, especially if those violating those demands weren’t a detriment to society and weren’t otherwise infringing on the rights of others. Thus, gay marriage and transgendered issues are being resolved as a freedom of conscience issue by the culture rather than a theological one, as they should by a secular state. Christianity always loses its vitality when it is enforced under the penalty of law. The life of God is freely given and can only be freely received.

9. Some have suggested that The Nashville Statement was not intended as a volley in the culture wars, but to draw a line of theological purity to exclude those pastors, authors, and denominations that advocate for the theological acceptance of homosexuality. That may be true, but the way they released it in the secular press would argue otherwise, and the fact that they did not host a wider conversation but stuck to a very narrow segment of evangelicalism would undermine that hope. The controversy it caused, as much by its process as its conclusions, shows that no one can in selective isolation compose an edict and have any hope that it will clear the air or bring the church together. The age of presumed gatekeepers has long since vanished.

10. As a culture we are losing our appreciation for nuance and assume that people can fit into one of two pre-determined camps. In our last election, we could either vote for the party who wanted to give amnesty to all undocumented aliens, or to the one who wanted to deport them all. No one was willing to negotiate the difficult space between those two extremes and find a more nuanced and just solution tailored to the circumstances of different people. The same is true of sexuality. You have to push biblical morality on everyone or the authenticity of your faith is suspect. Conversely people think your fidelity to Scripture will make it impossible for you to love those who don’t believe it. I reject both extremes. It is possible to disagree on moral issues and still be able to treat each other with compassion and respect, by protect the freedom of everyone’s right of conscience.

I hope we find a different conversation, both within Christianity about matters of morality and with the world in a way that opens the door for people to discover the Gospel, not slams it shut in their face before they ever have a chance to know how deeply loved they are by God.

]]>https://www.lifestream.org/revisiting-nashville-statement/feed/2410408Heading Back to Europehttps://www.lifestream.org/heading-back-europe/
https://www.lifestream.org/heading-back-europe/#commentsFri, 29 Sep 2017 01:35:54 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=10395Sara’s recovery is still going well, and she looks to be pretty functional in another couple of weeks. I’ve been holding off confirming a trip to Europe this fall until we knew that she was recovered. For those in France and Belgium interested in hanging out with others on this journey, I want to let […]

]]>Sara’s recovery is still going well, and she looks to be pretty functional in another couple of weeks. I’ve been holding off confirming a trip to Europe this fall until we knew that she was recovered. For those in France and Belgium interested in hanging out with others on this journey, I want to let you know that it looks like things have come together for me to be there in late October.

The plan now is to arrive in the south of France around October 23 and then make my way north through Angers and up into Belgium November 2-4. We will post details on my Travel Page as soon as we confirm everything, but wanted to give you a heads up in case you want to take advantage of this trip into Europe.

As always if you’d like to be notified when I’m coming to your area you can sign up on our email list and include your address . That goes for everyone, not just those in Belgium or France.

]]>https://www.lifestream.org/heading-back-europe/feed/310395Symbol over Substancehttps://www.lifestream.org/symbol-over-substance/
https://www.lifestream.org/symbol-over-substance/#commentsWed, 27 Sep 2017 17:49:45 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=10399I wonder how it feels to have your protest stolen. To be honest, I’ve never been a 49er or a Colin Kaepernick fan. When he sat down for the national anthem to draw attention to the inequities that still exists in our culture for people of color, I thought him disrespectful of our country. But […]

To be honest, I’ve never been a 49er or a Colin Kaepernick fan. When he sat down for the national anthem to draw attention to the inequities that still exists in our culture for people of color, I thought him disrespectful of our country.

But then he, and others, decided to kneel instead, not wanting people to mistake their protest as disrespect for flag, country, or its men and women in uniform. They just wanted our society to confront the fact that racial inequality still exists in our society. It does you know. You’d be a fool to think otherwise.

But most white people it seems would rather ignore that fact, thinking it was fixed fifty years ago when we passed civil rights legislation. While we do have equality under the law, we don’t yet have an equitable society given the great economic disadvantages that hold over from slavery and segregation. The escalating fear between police and the black community has led at times to innocent people being shot, and white America for the most part ignores it. It’s a problem for the ‘hood, or so they want to think.

What these athletes were hoping is that the majority white audience of the NFL would be confronted with a problem that is as yet unresolved in our culture and stand the powerless who live in neighborhoods most people wouldn’t choose to live in, who are incarcerated at disproportionate rates with disproportionate terms, and who lack the opportunities to better their lives that others have.

Why are we in white America so uncomfortable that we don’t want to take a look at the problem? Yes, it’s huge. No we don’t have enough governmental funds to throw at it, but the first step to change isn’t a new program, but compassion for people who weren’t born with the same advantages you were. You don’t have to be a racist to ignore it; you just have to be uncaring for humanity and too content with your own advantage.

To ignore the deeper issue others twisted it to make it about patriotism, the very thing these athletes were bending over backward to make sure we couldn’t do. Even President Trump has decided that to make America great again we have to despise those people who want to confront us with the truth that the ideals of this great nation don’t yet apply to all of us. I’m weary of those who want to defend his denigration of fellow American citizens expressing free speech as “sons of b*****s” and demand they be fired rather than take their concerns seriously. His actions simply underscore what began the protest in the first place and it is disappointing that he doesn’t see it as his responsibility as President to bring us together on these issues, rather than polarize us for the popularity he craves with his base.

Even the NFL teams who are linking arms, or staying in locker rooms are subverting the original issue by making it about free speech or team unity, rather then the inequities of race still inherent in our culture.

I wonder how it feels to have your protest stolen, to watch people care more about a flag than they do the lives of those living under it. Our soldiers fight for freedom overseas, but their work is not done if we’re not willing to fight for it at home—-for every American. Black lives suffering under oppression, fear and poverty do matter and their plight needs to move us all.

We need a better conversation about race in our culture and finding ways to nurture greater opportunities for those who are disadvantaged, not by our intent perhaps but by ignoring a history that didn’t treat us all fairly. We need reasonable men and women to come to the table and take up the task of making our society safer, fairer, and more equitable for all.

Nelson Mandela fought against bitterness for peace in post-apartheid South Africa by believing none of us are free until we all are free.

He was right. It’s not the symbol of liberty that’s at risk here, but liberty itself!

]]>https://www.lifestream.org/symbol-over-substance/feed/3710399Jesus Is Not Coming This Saturday Nighthttps://www.lifestream.org/jesus-not-coming-saturday-night/
https://www.lifestream.org/jesus-not-coming-saturday-night/#commentsWed, 20 Sep 2017 22:57:39 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=10386I just found out today that Jesus is coming back this Saturday night at 11:30, though I’m not sure what time zone that’s calibrated for. It has something to do with the star alignment and Revelation 12:1-2. I DO NOT BELIEVE IT! This stuff comes up every few years with someone mixing a dangerous amount […]

]]>I just found out today that Jesus is coming back this Saturday night at 11:30, though I’m not sure what time zone that’s calibrated for. It has something to do with the star alignment and Revelation 12:1-2. I

DO NOT BELIEVE IT!

This stuff comes up every few years with someone mixing a dangerous amount of Scripture (far too little) with a bit of cosmic wizardry and sends people into a tizzy. Some have even quit jobs in times past to “prepare” for the return of Christ, and been disappointed and sometimes economically devastated when such dates prove untrue. I’ve watched this go on for the last 50 years and hate what it does to people. All it does is create a lot of attention from someone, often sells a lot of books, and in its failed aftermath creates a wake of people disillusioned with God and weary of waiting for his promises.

As much as I would love for Jesus to come this Saturday, and I would be the first to cheer if he does, this whole approach certainly does not have the fragrance of Father about it. The way they twisted Scripture and the constellations to get the date is absurd on the face of it. I actually laughed when I read the reasoning behind this weekend. When Jesus said his coming would be “like a thief in the night”, he was telling us to ignore any so called Bible or cosmic expert that would set a date. It only provokes fear and really, really poor planning. If he comes, great! He will some day.He said those who would be most prepared for his coming would already be faithfully doing the things God has put in their heart to do. They don’t need a date. Even Jesus didn’t have a date, but entrusted all that to his Father.

So, please don’t quit your job, or sell your possessions. You’re going to need some of that on Monday morning. And don’t freak out your friends or family with your fears and anxieties.

If you’re already living like he could come any time, why would you need a date? Especially dates that prove over and over again to be completely misguided. Remember, The 88 Reasons Jesus Is Coming in 1988? Oops! Missed that! But the author of that book immediately turned around and wrote 89 Reasons Jesus Is Coming in 1989. The math was off. Both books sold well, but the body of Christ was not served well. Remember when one author staked “his entire reputation” on Y2K ushering in a worldwide depression that would precede the coming of Christ? Wrong again!

So don’t take your direction from soothsayers who twist history, Bible, and astronomy to set dates and seek for notoriety. If the same Spirit who raised Christ from the dead dwells in you, then you have all you need to follow him today. And if you’re following him, the knowledge that he would come on Saturday night would not change one thing about how you’re living today.

]]>https://www.lifestream.org/jesus-not-coming-saturday-night/feed/1510386What Else Could He Mean?https://www.lifestream.org/what-else-could-he-mean/
https://www.lifestream.org/what-else-could-he-mean/#commentsTue, 19 Sep 2017 17:08:38 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=10198My friend Jim sent me this comic the other day asking if I’d seen it. I’ve enjoyed a number of comics by “the naked pastor”, but had not seen this one. I think he’s right of course. He Loves Me is a great place to begin. Not sure he meant the book exactly, but why […]

]]>My friend Jim sent me this comic the other day asking if I’d seen it. I’ve enjoyed a number of comics by “the naked pastor”, but had not seen this one. I think he’s right of course. He Loves Me is a great place to begin. Not sure he meant the book exactly, but why else would he put it in quotes! If God’s recommending the book, you might want to take a look.

If I had only written one book it my lifetime, I would have wanted it to have been He Loves Me! Of course most people think they already know God loves them, but few people actually live like it. This is about learning to live in the reality of his affection. If we do that it will change everything. There is nothing more important for us to understand about God and us than that we are deeply loved children of a gracious Father. It is in knowing that love and living in it that all the life of God unfolds in us. When we’re trying to earn that love by whatever religious gymnastics we’ve been taught, our life in Christ becomes a fruitless drudgery.

And if you want to see one of my favorite emails about He Loves Me, click here. It was from a bookstore owner in July of 2006.

In the last few weeks I’ve also received some wonderful email from people that have been touched by that book.

Ed: The most powerful, life changing book I have ever read. It sticks with you and forces you to chew on it for days until you have go back and read it again. Several times it literally dropped me to my knees in tears because of the sheer beauty of God’s love for us so masterfully described by Wayne.

Harvey : This is my favorite book yet to date by anyone—not because of the elegance of words, but because of the simplicity in which it lays out the foundations of a love based relationship with God. That is already at work in each and every one of our lives, whether we are aware of Him or not, even and maybe especially to the most broken of us.

Dennis: This book was the beginning of a total transformation for me. No longer do I feel bound by rules, having to conform to please God because I failed over and over.

Jan: I have picked up your book He Loves Me and read it again and finding myself truly grateful and freshly overwhelmed by the gracious amazing love of God. I love your surrender and thank you for sharing it. I came from a family where it was taught “love was a useless emotion,” so you can imagine the outcome. I am the only one out of a family of eight that has stepped into the “gap” and broke a lot of family abuse for my four children and now twelve grandchildren. Miraculous as this has been I find myself still wanting the caress of the Fathers love and feeling the daunting of laying down effort and striving and bathing in Papa’s rest. I am thinking of doing a gathering around your book He Loves Me because it hits the need in all of us for significance and the deep need to be connected and most assuredly loved. I cannot think of any other book that hits the “need” for humanity so exactly. The true mind and heart of God is so clearly revealed.

Anonymous: I read He Loves Me in the very beginning of all this but I don’t think I received a whole lot of it since my mind was so locked up in crazy teachings. I just finished it for the second time and am now going through it again for the third time. I am continually blown away by what’s in there. I am understanding it so much better.

]]>https://www.lifestream.org/what-else-could-he-mean/feed/810198Nine Fatal Mistakes of Self-Publishinghttps://www.lifestream.org/nine-fatal-mistakes-self-publishing/
https://www.lifestream.org/nine-fatal-mistakes-self-publishing/#commentsTue, 12 Sep 2017 18:36:12 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=10357Yet another self-published book arrived on my desk last week. Just looking at it my heart sank. Regardless of what was inside the presentation of the book itself screamed, “Don’t read me!” Somebody had poured their heart and soul into that book, but it is highly unlikely that it will find an audience beyond the […]

]]>Yet another self-published book arrived on my desk last week. Just looking at it my heart sank. Regardless of what was inside the presentation of the book itself screamed, “Don’t read me!” Somebody had poured their heart and soul into that book, but it is highly unlikely that it will find an audience beyond the immediate friends and acquaintances of the one who wrote it.

Writing a book isn’t easy. Many talk about it; few actually accomplish it. Now that you’re done, you want to share it with the world. Most will first seek out a publisher who will love their book as much as they do and soon discover that the publishing companies you know about won’t even look at your manuscript. They will only take manuscripts from agents and agents are more difficult to find than publishers, and even harder to impress.

After failing to find an agent or publisher, many turn to self-publishing. And why not? In this day of on-line retailers, books-on-demand, and e-books, it has never been easier or cheaper to launch your book into the marketplace. According to Bowker, the company who registers UPC codes, over 700,000 were published last year. That’s a lot. If you want people to find your book in that haystack, it will help to give it every advantage you can.

Over the last few years I’ve reviewed hundreds of manuscripts and self-published titles because of all the books I’ve published, including my involvement with The Shack. That title was originally self-published and sold over 24 million copies and was adapted into a feature film. I not only helped re-write the book but then published it when all the publishers I knew turned it down. So I’ve done it all. I’ve published books on my own, with traditional publishers, and even formed a publishing company.

I get more requests to help new authors than I can possibly meet and get anything else done. Ten years ago I wrote an article for Windblown Media about why self-publishing is a credible alternative for first-time authors. However, to find an audience that way you have to avoid certain pitfalls that most self-published authors make. I’ve even tried to warn some in advance, but most don’t listen. They are so excited about their work to take a step back and consider that how they put the book together will have more impact on their book’s reach, than what they’ve written.

So here’s what I think is important for your book to reach beyond your family and friends and find an audience with people who do not know you. Take it for what it’s worth. I have made most of these mistakes, as have a few big-time publishers. These are not ironclad rules and you are free to ignore them. And, yes, I know there are books that violate these and still found their way to the top of best-seller lists, but that’s often in spite of their failures not because of them.

But here are my nine fatal mistakes of self-publishing:

1. Writing to yourself

I realize that journaling your own story is very helpful for people to process their journey. That may be a story you need to tell but it won’t be the story others will want to read unless it is written to them. This isn’t testimony-time at church no matter how compelling your story or how many people have told to write it. The reader doesn’t care about your life, they care about theirs and how what you have learned in your journey will answer some of the needs and struggles in their own.

Ninety percent of the manuscripts I receive are memoirs, where the author assumes people who don’t know them will be interested in reading their life story. Try as I might to get them to abandon the format to make their book accessible to others, most don’t listen. The book falls flat, leaving some incredible wisdom unavailable to people who would have benefited by it. Writing a memoir is the privilege of the famous, and even then someone else usually writes it for them. Your story needs to be the illustration; your book needs to be about the life lesson that will help your order.

2. Making your book unique

With all the books being written on similar subjects find something that makes your book unique? Most people think their story or their “take” is unique enough, but books that do well have a unique aspect that gets others talking. Is it especially funny, thought-provoking, emotionally compelling, or has a plot twist that will take the reader by surprise.

Book sales are driven by word-of-mouth, which has become so much easier through social media. If your readers are excited about it, they will talk about it, quote it, and encourage others to pick it up. Advertising your book, while helpful, is not enough. It will not overcome people feeling like they’ve read this before. Word-of-mouth has to come from genuine passion to communicate effectively and uniqueness is the key to that passion. And don’t beg your friends to all buy it at the same time on Amazon so you can claim it as a best-seller. That will only backfire as a cheap trick. Until you find something unique about your story or the way you’re telling it, you’re not ready to publish it.

We knew we had something with The Shack early on, because we didn’t just get good feedback, we had our reviewers begging us to let them pass the manuscript on to their friends. They weren’t trying to do us a favor, but doing what they desperately wanted to do. If your friends aren’t that excited about it, others won’t be either.

3. Not cutting enough

Regardless of how long your book is when you think you’ve finished it, cut it by another 20%. I learned this working for Leadership Journal as a contributing editor. When I was done with an article and thought it as streamlined as possible, they would make me cut another 20%. It was always better when it was tighter, more focused, and when every unnecessary word or illustration was removed. Self-published authors don’t cut enough. Their writing comes off as indulgent since they haven’t made the important choices for their reader.

When you write a good book, it takes on a life of its own. There are things you might want to include, but it will weigh the story down with meanderings that will lose the reader’s interest. With so much out there to read, most are just looking for an excuse to put down your book and get on to the next one. You have to grab your reader from page one and hold them throughout. I know it’s hard to leave out the good stuff you’ve written that the book does not demand. It’s easier to include everything than to make the hard choices between what you want and what is essential. To be honest even most books by publishing companies are too long with too many unnecessary words, usually adjectives. Simple and direct adds to the artistry of a good read.

4. Talking down to the reader

Everyone appreciates a little respect. Don’t treat your reader like a child, telling him how to read your book and what she should get out of it. Real experts trust their material to make their case, and don’t embellish it by trying to come off as a know-it-all. Be genuine with your reader, alongside them as they consider your words.

Don’t italicize words so they know how you want them to read it. When you’re giving them your advice, don’t use “you must,” “you need to,” or “you should”. It will make them defensive instead of receptive. Trust them to find the meat and chew on it.

5. Not getting honest feedback

If all your friends love your book, you’re not getting honest feedback. There’s no book that can be improved or focused more clearly. We went through four re-writes of The Shack, each time submitting it to people we knew would be critical of it. And we listened, incorporating the changes we could to make the story better.

Where did the story work? Where did it get bogged down? You don’t’ just need an English teacher friend to proof it for grammar; you need a content editor to tell you where the story goes off-track, doesn’t make sense, or lags. If your friends only give you positive feedback, draw them out by asking what would make it better, or what’s the weakest part of the book. Getting their honest thoughts and adapting it to the manuscript will make it stronger when it gets to your audience.

6. Using an unprofessional cover design

Everyone has a friend who is a graphic artist, or the author has already worked out the cover in his own mind and simply looks for someone to produce it. The result is it looks cheap, without the appropriate text on front and the back cover most inviting to the reader. Fully ninety-five percent of the self-published books I receive look cheaper and less inviting than the content inside would warrant.

What got The Shack recognized at Barnes and Noble was the cover. It was on a review table of self-published books, when the buyer pulled it off and handed it to her assistant thinking it was in the wrong place because of its design. Her assistant assured her that it was a self-published book, but the cover alone got her to begin to give it a good look. Within a few hours they were ordering 25,000 copies for the front of the stores nationwide.

Your friends and acquaintances will read your self-published book, but their friends and colleagues won’t if it looks self-published. If it looks cheap, they’ll conclude it is cheap without giving it a look. Your book should look exactly like it was produced by a major publisher, even including a publishing company name that sounds real. The design will cost some money, but it is the most important part of a book’s presentation. Find a designer that has already published books in the market place and make sure your book looks like those you see in a bookstore.

7. Getting cute with the inside layout

Just like the cover, you want the interior to beckon the reader’s eyes, not repel them.There’s a reason why publishers print books with wide margins and use fonts that are pleasant to read. They invite the eye to the text. Books printed with fonts like Arial, Comic, or Helvetica may look unique, but they are hard on the eyes and people will have an aversion to reading them.

Authors who try to save page count with too small a font or too narrow a border are telling their reader, “Don’t read this!” I understand why they want to save money, but you’re only hurting yourself in the long run. Better to edit down the book to save space rather than make the text look unprofessional or overwhelming.

8. Paying someone else to publish it for you

Vanity publishing is quite an industry. They will help you print your book, get a cover, and “distribute it to the trade.” They will tell you they can get it into bookstores, but don’t expect that they will. If they are charging you to ”help” with your book, they’ve already made their money. They know the average self-published book doesn’t sell well, so they make their money when they sold you the publishing package. They will send out informational brochures to retailers, and put it on a website, but most have way too many titles to represent yours well. Don’t expect to see your book in stores or for them to get you interviews.

I realize finding your own editor, cover designer, lay-out person, and then getting it distributed is a huge growth curve and you may want those services all in one place for you. That may be worth the cost do you. Just don’t expect them to do more than that

9. Expecting an audience to show up out of thin air

“I know this is going to sell a million copies.” I’ve heard that at least a dozen times from aspiring authors. They have no idea what it takes to sell that many, nor does anyone else or every book would sell a million.. According to BookScan, which tracks most bookstore, online, and other retail sales of books, only 299 million books were sold in 2008 in the U.S. in all adult nonfiction categories combined. The average U.S. book is now selling less than 250 copies per year and less than 3,000 copies over its lifetime.

Too many authors just think that because their book is in the marketplace it will sell well, and most come away extremely disappointed. Making your book known among the other 700,000 books published each year will take some work on your part. What will separate you from the pack? Creating an audience before your book comes out. What have you already done to help find an audience? Do you blog? Do you submit articles to websites and magazines consistent with what you want to write? Post sample chapters a few months before to see if people become engaged with your story or the counsel you wish to share. If you can’t find an audience for articles or blogs online you most likely won’t find one with your book.

Not every book is meant to be a best-seller, nor does it need to be. Some of the best books I’ve read didn’t sell well and some of the best letters I’ve received about one of my books have touched me so much that it would have been worth writing it if they alone had read it. Success is not found at the top of best-seller lists, but knowing that you’ve put something in the world that touches the lives of others, whether it be for a million, or a hundred and fifty.

It is easy to publish a book these days, but it isn’t easy to find its audience. That will depend on you providing the most inviting package possible. None of these guarantee anything, of course, but each will at least give your book the chance to fly.

]]>https://www.lifestream.org/nine-fatal-mistakes-self-publishing/feed/910357Some News on the Home Fronthttps://www.lifestream.org/news-home-front/
https://www.lifestream.org/news-home-front/#commentsThu, 07 Sep 2017 22:46:38 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=10328I just have some quick notes to let you in on here since many of you have been asking and praying about Sara and what we’re up to this fall. First, for those interested I’m going to be on The Vince Coakley Radio show tomorrow morning (Friday) at 11:05 Eastern Daylight Time (8:05 PDT) that airs […]

]]>I just have some quick notes to let you in on here since many of you have been asking and praying about Sara and what we’re up to this fall.

First, for those interested I’m going to be on The Vince Coakley Radio show tomorrow morning (Friday) at 11:05 Eastern Daylight Time (8:05 PDT) that airs in Greenville, South Carolina on WORD 106.3. Vince is a good friend of mine and has asked me to talk about The Nashville Statement that came out last week and my response to it that caused no small stir on my web page. You can find out more about the show here, and if you want to listen in you can stream it live using the button at the top right of that page. You’ve got to listen when it airs; there is no podcast posted later. Sorry.

Also, next week my wife, Sara, will be having hip-replacement surgery at UCLA Medical Center. This has been a long year for her with a number of medical challenges that have hampered her from many of the things she enjoys. Over the last year we have tried every other option and honestly feel this is our next step. We don’t need medical advice and know a number of people who have enjoyed the benefits of this surgery. We would appreciate your prayers as she goes through this and I will be taking the time to nurse her through the recovery.

There will be new podcasts this Friday and next, though the rest of my pages may be quiet during this time. Our friends in Pokot can use your help as they are learning to farm their own crops around the wells we drilled them. Remember these tribes have been nomadic for centuries, and are only now learning to grow crops instead of scavenging for food wherever they can.

After this, who knows where the Lord will lead us. If she recovers well from surgery I am planning on being in France and Belgium at the end of October, and though I have other trips to consider, I’m not confirming that or scheduling anything further until we get through surgery. This should give me some time to write and finish up a few things around here.

]]>https://www.lifestream.org/news-home-front/feed/610328Kenya: Water Flowing in the Desert…https://www.lifestream.org/kenya-water-flowing-desert/
https://www.lifestream.org/kenya-water-flowing-desert/#commentsTue, 05 Sep 2017 17:31:44 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=10197Can you imagine what it’s like for that man above to stand there with a hose, spraying water on the parched land to begin the first farming operation in this part of Kenya? These are nomadic people whose life was destroyed by a drought, and now they have the tools and resources to grow their […]

]]>Can you imagine what it’s like for that man above to stand there with a hose, spraying water on the parched land to begin the first farming operation in this part of Kenya? These are nomadic people whose life was destroyed by a drought, and now they have the tools and resources to grow their own crops and feed themselves. This is a dream-come-true for them and its thanks to the generous support of many of you they are able to put two acres of land under cultivation near one of the wells we helped drill for them a couple of years ago. The people of Ngetut Village did all the hard work to prepare the land and help to build the irrigation system that will provide for those two acres. The project is big enough to expand to seven acres in time. If this prototype project goes well, six other villages are hopeful that we will help them too, though the costs are huge. These projects are in addition to the $10,000 we send monthly just to help them with water, food, education, hygiene, and building a new economy.

The cost for tanks, irrigation, land, and fencing to keep out the goats and cattle runs almost $35,000 per tribe. If you’d like to help us expand this project to other villages we would appreciate your help. Here’s the current report from our first project by Michael and Thomas:

Greetings in Jesus’ name. Thank you very much for standing with us in prayers during our election process, God has done marvelous here in Kenya. The nation is calm and the businesses are return to normal, despite some little misunderstanding, but the people are continue with their lives without problem. The whole world was looking this election and God is faithful for protecting the life and properties.

I can’t hold the joy of tears after hearing the ladies sharing with us how the well has helped this communities Some of them were walking between four to five hours and now they can see the flowing water within some few meters. One woman said, “I have a dream to see the land full of flowing water and others sprinkled. This is really God’s miracle. Many years we were believing the god of mount Muteo and Kadam. Every year we would slaughter a hundreds of goats and some cows crying that they may have mercy with rain and water. But today the whole community believes the living God has answered us with what we are seeing today.” May the lord bless you along with your team. I know this investment it has cost a lot. May the lord reward all of you for this great task.

Thank you also for the additional money for the fence, we had to change from wooden posts to metal rods because of termites. I have arrived this evening from the site, everything is excellent. The plumbing expert has worked exactly as the first sketch. The water has started flowing to the irrigation tank as the water flows to the farm, this amazing grace. The all land has been covered more two acres, and the water will be enough, even to flow more as you may see in attached pictures. The plumber and his team will be completing the whole work, the end of the week. We have planted the first plantation and we are expecting the community to plant the rest.

The community were so happy, and they see it as a miracle for the first irrigation to be founded in this region. Surprisingly some people from Chemyon Village spent the whole day helping the Ngetut village for ploughing and digging the land together. This is so amazing and irrigation might be the last solution of this communities. Thank you also for supporting them with fencing, otherwise the goats and cows might have destroyed the pipes and crops. Everything is protected and the expert team will complete the work at the end of this week. We will continue updating you the ongoing irrigation project. We have the confidence this first irrigation project will succeed to feed this community. It is our prayer that, God will provide again for the next irrigation in Chemyon Village. Our joy is to see the live of this people has been transformed, thank you for your great concern and the all people who has stood with us to see that irrigation is done.

May the lord bless you for the great help; we thank our almighty God who touched the heart of people so that they were able to respond quickly for this pressing need.

We have had some added expenses to the first plot in helping the people to learn about irrigation and farming, and to have a place to store and distribute the harvest. We are moving slowly here to make sure this project is successful before branching out to help other villages.

If there ever was a time you wanted to genuinely help poor people, without anyone else siphoning off money for administrative fees or other benefit, this is it. All contributions are tax-deductible in the US. And as always, every dollar you send goes to the need in Kenya. We do not (nor do they) take out any administrative or money transfer fees. Please see our Sharing With the World page at Lifestream. You can either donate with a credit card there, or you can mail a check to Lifestream Ministries • 1560 Newbury Rd Ste 1 • Newbury Park, CA 91320. Or if you prefer, we can take your donation over the phone at (805) 498-7774.

Thank you on behalf of the people of Pokot for your gifts and prayers on their behalf.

]]>https://www.lifestream.org/kenya-water-flowing-desert/feed/710197Nashville Statement Takes Evangelicals the Wrong Directionhttps://www.lifestream.org/nashville-statement-takes-evangelicals-wrong-direction/
https://www.lifestream.org/nashville-statement-takes-evangelicals-wrong-direction/#commentsFri, 01 Sep 2017 16:19:07 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=10286It seems the Pharisees gathered in Nashville last week and carved out a stand on morality, marriage, and sexuality that they say is “essential” to the faith. It’s called The Nashville Statement and is the work of 150 conservative religious leaders convened by The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. As soon as I saw […]

]]>It seems the Pharisees gathered in Nashville last week and carved out a stand on morality, marriage, and sexuality that they say is “essential” to the faith. It’s called The Nashville Statement and is the work of 150 conservative religious leaders convened by The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. As soon as I saw the headlines and those involved, my heart sank.

Why in this day of growing national animosity would so many religious figures publish yet another proclamation against the sins they most detest? There’s nothing new here. Their positions are already well known, but society continues to move away from them. Not surprisingly the list of signatories were mostly white and mostly male representing those groups that tend to focus on morality more than Christ. I can’t imagine anyone could sign this document who understands the heartbeat of our Father for the brokenness of the world. Certainly some had to ignore that inner sense that this was a bad idea. Perhaps they felt pressured to sign or others would accuse them of compromise.

While I agree with much of what it says about morality and seek to live my life accordingly, that is only true because of the grace God has given me. As a whole, this exercise represents the wrong message, time, and means to share God’s light with the world. It may give the home team something to cheer about, but at what cost to the Gospel? Moralists always go large on sex and remain strangely silent about religious arrogance, gossip, the excesses of capitalism, and ignoring the log in your own eye while you try to rip the sawdust out of someone else’s.

This statement re-draws the same lines of exclusion that has plunged evangelicalism into irrelevance over the past half century and does nothing to invite people into God’s reality. This is a statement the Pharisees might have generated when Jesus was spending too much of his time with those they regarded as sinners. It has more in common with their agenda for the culture, than it did for Jesus, who was bent on winning people into Father’s love as the conduit into a transformed life, rather than laying out the rules and compelling people to follow.

Now we have a new statement to wave around as a litmus test of Biblical morality that Christians will have to pledge allegiance to or be judged as soft on sin. Well, as a passionate follower of Jesus Christ and one that embraces the moral safety of Scripture, I reject this Statement on the following grounds:

It packages God’s desire for humanity as Law to obey instead of a Loving Father to embrace. As such it repudiates the Incarnation of Christ to win by love and affection what law and obedience could never win. Left to itself, this Statement distorts how God rescues people from their own brokenness and restores them through love and transformation.

As a political statement it confuses the differing role of government and the faith community in matters of marriage and sexuality.

It smacks of religious arrogance by calling its conclusions “essential” for faith, and attacking those who see it differently as “foolish” and “bent on ruin.” It overstates the conclusion of Scriptures to support their own prejudices and fears and there is no humility that admits even those who believe these things have a difficult time living true to them. Shouldn’t we clean our own house before telling others how to clean theirs?

It assumes that Christianity has a handle on masculinity and femininity when religious environments are notorious for stereotyping those distinctions to selectively distribute power rather than embracing the revelation of God.

It offers no compassion, kindness, or hope for people who do not conform to their view of morality. Instead it will embolden those whose animosity and fear seeks to hurt those who disagree with them and it will add further condemnation and despair to those who do not yet know God’s love for them.

If moral statements such as this one is the best hope Christianity brings to the world, we have missed the most endearing realities of the Gospel. If Jesus had offered a Statement of Morality to the woman who had been caught in adultery, would it have given her any hope that she could approach the Father Jesus wanted her to know?

Religious leaders and secular advocates want to force us into one of two camps: I must force biblical morality on those who do not see it to the despair of those who cannot live it. Or, I can be compassionate by abandoning my convictions about morality. I refuse to accept this false dichotomy. It is possible to hold my moral convictions while at the same time loving and caring deeply for those who don’t. This is better communicated in conversations with people you know and care about, rather than making public proclamations.

We need a different conversation with our culture, one steeped in kindness and respect across our deepest differences. We don’t have to compromise our morality to love others who may not have the same anchor we do. We don’t have to pound them over the head with our moral views when they don’t yet know the God we know. What we can champion together is the freedom of each person’s conscience that allows them to see these things differently without either side employing the power of the state to force their preferences on others. There has never been a time when followers of Christ need to learn how to be “wise as serpents and harmless as doves.” The Nashville Statement does neither.

Perhaps they could learn something from my wife. Our backyard is filled with an English garden that blooms profusely year-round. People come to marvel at what my wife, Sara, has created here and only I know the hours she invests every week to keep it so beautiful. A while ago we got a new puppy and one day when I went into the garden to talk to her, I saw the puppy digging a large hole in one corner of the garden on the opposite side where Sara was working. Seeing the plants strewn about, I assumed the new pup was in big trouble.

“Sara, do you know what’s going on over here behind your back,” I called to her.

“With Zoey?” she replied never turning around. “I do,” and I could hear the smile in her voice.

Uncertain she knew the gravity of the situation I asked her if she know how big it was. ”You could bury a small cadaver in there,” I chuckled as I approached her.

“It doesn’t matter. I just want her to enjoy being in the garden with me every time I’m here and if I’m always yelling at her she won’t. So, she can do whatever she wants this year. Next year we’re going to learn how to be in the garden without destroying it.”

Until people are endeared to God because of how wonderful he is they won’t care about the things he says, especially if they think he hates and rejects them. We would do better investing our time and resources in helping them discover a God worth loving for himself.

I have a quote on my computer I got years ago from an AIDs outreach video. “Sometimes we withhold grace until we are sure people understand their sin. But it is in the giving of grace that we remind people that they need to go to Jesus to find their own. People understand their sin without our help; it’s grace they need help understanding.”

Maybe if we truly understood grace, we would spend less effort crafting moral statements and more loving others like God loves us. That’s how Jesus said he would change the world. Let’s try that!

]]>https://www.lifestream.org/nashville-statement-takes-evangelicals-wrong-direction/feed/10110286Sometimes You Just Have to Be Therehttps://www.lifestream.org/sometimes-you-just-have-to-be-there/
https://www.lifestream.org/sometimes-you-just-have-to-be-there/#commentsTue, 22 Aug 2017 19:03:25 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=10224The above photo was taken by a friend of mine Kent Burgess, during yesterday’s eclipse from somewhere near St. Louis. You can see additional ones on his website and Facebook page from the link above. As part of bringing my son back to Denver to begin a new job, we took the day to run […]

]]>The above photo was taken by a friend of mine Kent Burgess, during yesterday’s eclipse from somewhere near St. Louis. You can see additional ones on his website and Facebook page from the link above.

As part of bringing my son back to Denver to begin a new job, we took the day to run up to Wyoming where we would be in the path of totality. I’ve seen lots of eclipses in my day, because God’s glory in the heavens always fascinates me whether it’s in the form of meteor showers, the Milky Way, or an eclipse. I’ve always wanted to see a total eclipse, but the time and expense of getting to Wyoming just didn’t seem worth it for a two-minute show. Since, I was already in the area, however to help Andrew and to meet with others on the journey in the Denver area, it didn’t seem like too much to make a three-hour run to Wyoming. (Though it was a five and a half hour ride back, but that’s another story. Still worth it!)

But I didn’t know what to expect and was not prepared for what I saw. Most of the time is spent looking at various stages of an eclipse that I’ve seen before. 20%… 35%… 62%… even 85% and I thought going to 100 would be more of the same. I’d seen lots of pictures and videos of total eclipses, including the one from yesterday, but I’m telling you none of them do it justice. It isn’t just what you’re seeing in the sky, it’s what’s going on all around you and the ambiance of majesty at that moment was palpable. I was not prepared to be as awed by all this as I was. Even though it was a two-minute show, I will never forget it. You just had to be there.

As totality approached the sunlight visibly darkened. Stars and planets began to appear on the blue sky and that was disorienting.. and majestic! Even at only 1% of the sun shinning and all is getting dark around you, you still can’t bear to look at the son without the eclipse glasses. And then… suddenly, that bright light finishes, and for the text two minutes it’s as if someone set off the most incredible fireworks you’ve ever seen. Totality is not like any version of partiality at all! it’s a whole different “other”. As soon as the sun disappears behind the moon everything changes!

I pulled my glasses off and there is this big black hole in the sky, with the sun’s corona shooting out from behind it in starbursts of energy shooting far from the sun and twisting against the black background of space. In pictures it looks small, in the moment it dominated the sky with wonder. Though it didn’t get completely dark, stars appeared and the horizon for 360 degrees around was painted in the soft pastels of an almost-completed sunset.

The entire view was awe-inspiring and every glance around me alive with his glory. My soul quivered, goose bumps shot up my neck, and my eyes moistened. I was moved at the glory of it all even though I was expecting none of that. I never even thought of taking a photo, I just stood in awe of this phenomenon, knowing I only had a few seconds to take it all in. People screamed and applauded on the hillsides around us, but I was so captured by the moment, the noise seemed an intrusion. It is truly the most amazing thing in creation I’ve ever seen and it touched me deeply, though I’m not sure how. I didn’t feel closer to God, but I was more aware of what an incredible universe he made for us. And the immensity of his power within it.

If you ever get the chance to see an eclipse take it. There’s one coming in 2024 to the U.S. It’s worth the added time and hassle. It’s truly one of the great wonders of the Creation and to think I almost missed it. Since Sara wasn’t well enough to travel I thought I’d pass on it as I have so many others in the past, until my sons invited me to come with him to Denver and see it together. I’m so glad he did and now I want to get Sara to one in the future.

I don’t mean to lord it over those of you that weren’t in the path of totality yesterday, just letting you know that one day you will want to be there. No words or even pictures can do it justice. That’s as true of the eclipse as it is of our relationship to God. Don’t just settle for others describing it to you or reading about it in books. He wants to show each of you how to behold him as he makes his revelation known in your heart. That’s not as easy as running off to an eclipse, but what you get to experience is far better. I know people get frustrated when they feel as if it isn’t happening for them, or at least not as fast as they want, but God knows how best to pour himself into our hearts. All we can give him is a quiet, open heart willing to engage him however he desires best and watch what he does. That’s hard to describe as well.

With a fuller heart, and a quieter spirit myself, I’ll be off to Amarillo on Thursday and the next chapter in my unfolding story….

]]>https://www.lifestream.org/sometimes-you-just-have-to-be-there/feed/810224Two Books You Might Enjoyhttps://www.lifestream.org/two-books-might-enjoy/
Wed, 16 Aug 2017 18:45:09 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=10196As summer winds down, let me commend two books to you, both by people I’ve come to know its they were writing their books. So I got to read them both before they were published. The first is Alter Girl, by Andrea Syverson. I met when we were both on a speaker’s panel at the […]

]]>As summer winds down, let me commend two books to you, both by people I’ve come to know its they were writing their books. So I got to read them both before they were published.

The first is Alter Girl, by Andrea Syverson. I met when we were both on a speaker’s panel at the FUTURE OF THE CHURCH convention in Colorado last year. I immediately found her story engaging and had the opportunity to have lunch with her and her husband. Alter Girl is the story of a young woman raised Catholic, whose hunger and questions took her away from religion and into the reality of a more vibrant faith. Many readers of this blog will find her story engaging, even if you don’t share her Catholic past. With humor and profound insight Andrea takes us on her journey from a girl who faithfully followed the rules to one who found a moe authentic journey of relating to God and the church Jesus is shaping in the world. I always enjoy a book more when the life behind it resonates deeply with what’s on the pages. This one does and it’s a compelling read you’ll enjoy. (230 pages, paperback)

Both Eugene Peterson and I have quotes on the book.

“ALTER GIRL is a tour de force of learning how to abandon preconceptions of the life of faith and embrace what is so generously given. Beautifully and wonderfully written.”

Eugene Peterson

“You hold in your hands an epic tale through religious disillusionment into a discovery of a more personal and vibrant faith. With refreshing wit and candor Andrea invites you inside her Catholic upbringing, her marriage outside that faith and the struggle her and her husband faced seeking a community of believers full of reality and encouragement. Not everyone finds their way through this journey with their faith intact. She does and what she discovered along the way can be of real help to you.”

Wayne Jacobsen

The second book is Incarnate: The Incredible Journey of Edward Mayus, by Robert Blizzard. This is a fictional story that asks the question, “If you had a chance to implant into yourself the DNA of Jesus Christ, would you?” Edward Mayus did. An agnostic medical researcher takes up that challenge from his murdered brother and the changes that happen in him upend his entire world. This is a wild ride from the heart of the Vatican to the streets of New York that contemplates the power of transformation in the human heart and the conflict it brings him into with the powers of religion.

Here’s what I wrote of the cover of Robert’s book:

RJ Blizzard has crafted an exceptional story that contemplates the best mysteries of the universe, where faith and truth find their way into the human heart. It’s a wild ride with engaging characters through conflict, discovery and unforeseen twists that will have you scratching your head until the end. If you’re looking for a a compelling read of human transformation where religion is not always the best friend of faith, you’ll find it here.

Both of these books are about transformation, the power of Jesus to transform our lives through a growing relationship with him. Whether you enjoy a real-life story, or a fictional tale, I’m sure one, if not both of these books will be a blessing to you and an encouragement to your own journey.

]]>10196I Lift My Eyes To the Mountains!https://www.lifestream.org/lift-eyes-mountains/
https://www.lifestream.org/lift-eyes-mountains/#commentsTue, 01 Aug 2017 19:00:33 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=10113When I was a little boy our family always vacationed in the Sierra Nevada mountains above Fresno. No place on earth rejuvenates my heart and soul as much as some time spent in the pines, alpine lakes, and rocky outcroppings of the Sierras. That’s where we are headed today to visit my dad and to […]

]]>When I was a little boy our family always vacationed in the Sierra Nevada mountains above Fresno. No place on earth rejuvenates my heart and soul as much as some time spent in the pines, alpine lakes, and rocky outcroppings of the Sierras. That’s where we are headed today to visit my dad and to enjoy a two-week vacation. Some of that will be with our extended family who will join us for a week, and some of that will be Sara and I just relaxing together. This past year has been brutal physically for us. I’ve undergone two surgeries and Sara one. And Sara will have one more in the next month or so. She has been in constant pain since last year at this time and we’re hopeful that hip-replacement surgery will soon provide the relief she needs. It seems we’ve spent most of the last year in hospitals or in recovery, or in my case being on the road to the midwest, east coast, and most recently South Africa.

So you can expect these pages to be quiet for the next few weeks. After I get home I’ll be helping my son move to Denver where he’s taken a new job at the University of Denver, and it happens to coincide with the solar eclipse in late August. You can also expect me to get hopelessly behind on my email, so it might be best not to write me until August 15 if you need an intelligent answer. At the end of the month I’ll be in Amarillo, TX. I’m not sure where else I’ll end up this fall. There’s talk of going to North Carolina and possibly to France, but we’ve got to get Sara’s surgery sorted out first, and then I’ll be announcing what other travel I’ll be able to get in this year.

However, during this time book orders will still go out, since we have people covering that for us.

]]>https://www.lifestream.org/lift-eyes-mountains/feed/410113Do You Need Covering?https://www.lifestream.org/do-you-need-covering/
https://www.lifestream.org/do-you-need-covering/#commentsMon, 31 Jul 2017 18:43:06 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=10124 By Wayne Jacobsen, a new chapter for the book he’s writing on The Phenomenon of the Dones Perhaps no teaching has been used more to subjugate the will of one human to another than that of spiritual covering. Under the guise of spiritual authority, people are actually instructed to obey a religious leader even at […]

By Wayne Jacobsen, a new chapter for the book he’s writing on The Phenomenon of the Dones

Perhaps no teaching has been used more to subjugate the will of one human to another than that of spiritual covering. Under the guise of spiritual authority, people are actually instructed to obey a religious leader even at the cost of not following Jesus himself.

I don’t hear much talk of it stateside any more, though I know it’s here, but it came up often in my recent trip through South Africa. Spiritual covering is the idea that as a believer you need something or someone above you to protect you from deception and error. Some traditions teach that your local pastor or congregation is your covering. As long as you follow their teachings and submit critical decisions to them, they will keep you from slipping off the narrow way. Others claim they are covered by a denomination or denominational executive, or even the Pope himself.

It assumes God only works through hierarchical leadership structures and if you don’t follow them you are not following Christ. If you have a covering God will protect and bless you. If you do not, you are in rebellion and not only can the enemy deceive you but also God will not care for you.

Those who teach this false doctrine use it to exploit people and demand their unquestioned obedience. Those who believe it are paralyzed by fear, especially when the Spirit inside is trying to warn them away from leaders who are exploiting them, or a teaching that manipulates them. It confuses people when what God reveals in them runs counter to the desires of their leaders. In those moments they will find it easier to believe they must be wrong and defer to the alleged anointing, education, or charisma of the leader. It’s no wonder we have so many weak and confused Christians who are dependent on someone else to tell them what to believe or do.

It’s amazing how much traction this doctrine has gained over the centuries especially when it has absolutely no biblical support! Chalk that up to the fact that those teaching it are beneficiaries of it, whether to sate their ego or garner their income. Nothing in Scripture is written that tells us we are safer following a human leader than we are following Jesus himself by the Spirit. In fact much is written that argues against the very idea.

The only place in Scripture where covering is mentioned is Adam and Eve using fig leaves after the fall. Their shame sought a covering to hide from God and each other. So why does their first reaction to sin become our model for safety, especially when it’s God they were hiding from? And that’s exactly what happens under covering theology. It puts someone or something between you and God to protect yourself from him and surrender your allegiance to another flawed human being. Not surprisingly it also fragments the body of Christ as we divide up into separate fiefdoms of covering.

The only other Scripture I’ve heard quoted in the defense of covering is Hebrews 13:17, “Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account.” The first part of this verse is intentionally translated to over-hype ecclesiastical authority. The early followers didn’t have institutional structures or those managing them that people had to submit to unquestioningly. They had relationships with more mature followers and this verse encouraged them to yield to their wisdom as they learned to follow God themselves. These leaders didn’t tell people what to do, but taught them to engage God and to follow him.

The second part of this verse is often twisted to teach that believers are accountable to human leaders when the clear meaning of the verse is that the leaders are accountable to God for what they teach and how they treat his people. Jesus never intended that those who lead in his kingdom would get between him and his people. The glory of the new covenant is that “all will know him, from the least to the greatest” and that they will be able to follow him because he will write his ways on their hearts and minds. (Hebrews 8) True leaders equip people to know Christ and to follow him, not get people to follow them instead.

In Finding Church, I wrote of a friend from Australia who drew a great distinction between elders in the first century church and what elders became in the second generation. Ignatius, a disciple of John the apostle, helped make that twist. Prior to Ignatius elders were seen as guardians of a gift—“Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Every believer was a temple in which Christ dwelled, and elders guarded that gift from anyone trying to subjugate his followers to their own desires or vision. But as the early believers began to form hierarchical pyramids of authority, Ignatius demanded loyalty to leaders as guardians of right faith and practice. Thus, in one generation leadership had changed from those who equip others to follow the Spirit within, to those who would conform them to rules and doctrine from without. Instead of serving people’s spiritual journeys, they became policemen to compel people to do what they think best.

This covering theology may well have been one those “doctrines of demons” Paul warned us to reject. For under the guise of protecting people from Satan’s deception, they take them captive to their own will or wisdom. People are taught to trust some other person’s “anointing” or academic training. But it simply doesn’t work. I’ve never met a pastor or other leader who got caught in a sexual affair or misusing ministry funds who wasn’t under a designated covering of some sort.

Wasn’t it Lucifer’s goal in the garden to separate the first humans from God getting them to trust their own ways instead of his and cover up in their shame? Wasn’t this what Israel expressed when they ran from God’s presence, encouraging Moses to listen for them promising they would obey him instead? And wasn’t this why Samuel warned Israel that their desire for a king was a rejection of God and would backfire on them in ways they couldn’t imagine?

We have a long history of wanting to put someone or something between God and us in the misguided fear that God can’t lead us personally. And didn’t those choices always inure to the detriment of humanity, as their designated leaders would end up serving their own interests rather than God’s? It gives away responsibility for what’s true to someone who is usually vested in our response to it. Some of the dearest people I know get their agenda and God’s confused quite easily and all the more so when their livelihood depends on it.

The Incarnation of Jesus invited each of us inside a relationship with him where he would be our shepherd. He said that his sheep would know his voice and that he will lead them into safe pasture so they would never need to be afraid again. The work of Jesus puts our trust in him, not religious leaders. Because he conquered sin and shame on the cross we each have the opportunity to know him, not trust someone else to tell us what he’s like. Any need for a covering was removed as we are given full and free access to God.

Can you imagine what would have happened if Jesus would have submitted to the “spiritual covering” of his day? The Pharisees would have silenced him and separated him from the very people he came to rescue. Unfortunately the religious leaders of his day were among those who had most lost touch with God and his nature.

That’s why Jesus didn’t tell us he would send us a book to guide us, a religious structure to protect us, or spiritual leaders to control us. He said he would leave us with his Spirit who “would guide us into all truth.” The reality of the New Testament community is that God lives in us all by the Spirit and thus has access to every heart and mind and that those who know him would recognize that voice and follow him.

Though Paul told Timothy to appoint elders in Ephesus that could encourage people with sound doctrine, he did not intend for those elders to supplant Jesus or to infringe on his relationship with them. When they did, John wrote to Ephesus again many years later, to let them know that the elders had become the problem demanding allegiance to them over their obedience to Christ. He had to remind them that they each had an anointing from the Holy One so they could discern between what’s true and what’s not.

So, no, you do not need a covering to protect you spiritually. In fact it will have the opposite effect if it convinces you that you cannot trust his Spirit within you to be your protection and guide. Does that mean, then, you’re on your own then and if a bit theologically naïve, you are at risk? If the Holy Spirit dwells in you how could you be? He is able to keep you safe in the arms of the Father against any lie that would deceive you whether it comes from the evil one or from the best-intentioned religious leader.

Haven’t you heard a teacher say something that had all the biblical prooftexts one could want, but left you restless inside, questioning whether something was amiss even if you couldn’t identify it? Like a teaching on spiritual covering perhaps? That’s his Spirit helping you discern what’s true and what’s false. When religious leaders teach you to trust them instead of the Spirit’s compass within you, you’ll get very confused as to how Jesus wants to lead you. Your allegiance belongs only to him, not to people or organizations who claim to speak for him.

But won’t that lead to chaos and error when everyone does what is right in their own eyes? To the degree that people follow self instead of Jesus, it will. We all know people who claim to be led by the Spirit who do horribly self-serving and destructive things in his name. We might think it helpful if more mature brothers or sisters could rein that in with command authority, but Scripture gives no place for that to happen and history gives us no example where that authority was not soon corrupted to take people’s eyes off of Jesus.

Jesus warned his disciples that they would not “lord over” others as demonstrated in the worldly structures around them (Mark 10:42-45). His leaders would be servants, not commanders. They help people come to know Christ and teach them how to follow him. History teaches us that whenever humans draw his authority to themselves they will almost always end up using it in self-serving ways. They will make decisions for the good of the institution that employs them rather than the individual they were called to serve.

So how do we respond to spiritual authority? It is helpful to separate institutional authority from spiritual authority. They are not the same thing. If you are part of an institutional system then yield to its way of keeping order or you’ll only be a destructive source of division and chaos. When you can no longer follow along or feel it is compromising your own life with God, then you need to leave and see what else he has for you. Just because someone has authority in a system, does not mean they have authority from God.

God’s authority comes through the power of an indestructible life, their integrity and the authenticity with which they live. They are not playing a role, but have simply learned to live in growing trust of God’s love and can encourage others to do the same. Authority doesn’t come from a vocation, academic training, or a place on the flow chart. They are people you respect not only for their insight and wisdom but also the tenderness and compassion with which they treat people. They do not marshal people to build their own kingdom, but build up others so they can follow Christ with greater freedom and joy. When you are near someone at rest in God’s goodness and though their insight may challenge you, you’ll find them the safest people to be around in your struggles, failures, or questions. Give their words weight, but resist the urge to grow dependent on them instead of letting them help you learn to listen to God’s Spirit in you.

No person is meant to be a covering between you and God. Anyone who seeks to tell you what to do on God’s behalf proves by doing so that they are not acting in his authority. True leaders will speak the truth as they see it in love and entrust it to the Spirit and your conscience to convince you of what’s true. They don’t exploit people or demand their loyalty. They simply serve you, as Jesus grows bigger in your heart.

I know people reading this will fear that people following Jesus will become arrogant and independent, but I don’t find that to be true of people who are looking to follow Jesus. This is a family after all, not a free-for-all. They realize that Truth exists apart from their own preferences or best wisdom. Anyone seeking to follow Jesus as he makes himself known within them will soon realize that they navigate in uncertain space. As Paul says we all see through a darkened mirror as we seek to discern his ways.

Perhaps that’s why we want the security of the pseudo-confidence of anyone who claims to know it all or some doctrinal structure to protect us. But they are only an illusion. No one hears God perfectly, interprets Scripture with complete accuracy, or knows your heart like God does, which always makes me suspicious of those who proclaim certainty and speak as if their words are proclamations straight from God.

So where is our safety net, if there is no spiritual covering? Why it is in him, of course! God the Father watches over you, Jesus walks with you and his Spirit dwells in you. Having any other spiritual covering is an act of distrust in his ability to care for you. If we are wanting to follow his ways he will let our hearts resonate with those things that are true and make us restless in those things that are false. In time circumstances and whether or not we are finding his fullness within will help us learn where we are listening to him and where we are dressing up our own desires in God-language. If it doesn’t become evident to us, it will become evident to those around us.

That’s why learning to listen to him incubates a spirit of humility and openness. Those growing in Christ do not become independent or anarchist. Learning to follow Jesus is a life-long journey, separating his desires from our own and his way of doing things from their own ways and they will find themselves drawn into those spaces where they can test between what is true and what is false.

Always look for what his Spirit is revealing to you to be consistent with the character of Scripture. Always treat most suspiciously those leadings that perfectly dovetail with your own desires and whims. God’s ways are higher than ours and mostly his insights will challenge our conventional and preferred thoughts to lead us more deeply into his reality. Truth will almost always challenge us before our surrender to it will set us free.

Of course anyone who willingly walks alone on this journey and without the wisdom and counsel of others is a fool. Find some other men and women you can share with and let their thoughts and insights help you discern how the Spirit is leading you, or whether you’re just reacting to last night’s pizza. Your friends won’t always get it right, but they will help you find your blind spots. Be most careful when they are trying to talk you out of a difficult obedience, and most open when they help you see how pride or dishonesty is slipping in as our flesh tries to masquerade as his Spirit

And in the big-ticket items of theology or direction, find some others who are a bit further down the track than you. There are elders, teachers, prophets, and apostles who are gifts to help us know God better and learn his ways, just know that the real ones don’t carry the title on their business cards and are not building an institution in their name. Almost at every stage God where God has shifted my thinking he put me alongside some older men and women who could encourage his work in me and provide warnings when I was being sidetracked. Those who are wise, gently honest, and without the need to control your response are great gifts. We need more of these genuine elders scattered in the body of Christ who are courageous enough to walk alongside others and encourage their growth without controlling them.

We also have opportunity to think alongside men and women who have lived before us by the writings they’ve left that have endured the test of time. Interact with their thoughts and see how they might apply to your own journey, especially those who have lived thrived in faith through dark and desperate times.

In these days of disintegrating institutions Jesus is calling the church back to himself. As long as you are cowering beneath any kind of human contrived covering, you’ll ignore him in deference to them. He has made a way for you to be deeply connected to him and he is more certain than any covering humanity can devise. Put your trust in him and look to follow him each day as best you see him.

I’ve heard some people who when asked what spiritual covering they are under will respond that Jesus is the only covering they need. I get what they mean by that, but perhaps it is better said that Jesus came to do away with any need for covering at all. Now we can with unveiled faces behold him and in doing so be transformed by him.

There’s no good reason for anyone else to stand in the way of that.

_________

This is part 19 in a series on The Phenomenon of the Dones by Wayne Jacobsen who is the author of Finding Churchand host of a podcast at TheGodJourney.com. You can read the first half here and subsequent parts below. It will eventually be made into a book for people to read more easily.

]]>https://www.lifestream.org/do-you-need-covering/feed/2010124Free Book: Living Beyond the Bordershttps://www.lifestream.org/free-book-living-beyond-borders/
https://www.lifestream.org/free-book-living-beyond-borders/#commentsFri, 28 Jul 2017 16:29:07 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=10103Living Beyond the Borders, a new book by a friend of mine, John Langford in the UK. It is a feast for any hungry heart looking for the boundless joy of living in the Father’s reality. Too often we live hemmed in by manmade borders that reduce our freedom in Christ to a set of […]

]]>Living Beyond the Borders, a new book by a friend of mine, John Langford in the UK. It is a feast for any hungry heart looking for the boundless joy of living in the Father’s reality. Too often we live hemmed in by manmade borders that reduce our freedom in Christ to a set of empty rituals. This book will help you set your sights beyond those borders and embrace the mystery and joy of a journey of growing intimacy and friendship with Jesus. This strikes to the very heart of salvation—access to him and a growing relationship that makes every day an adventure. Simply, powerfully, and honestly written.

Since it’s horribly expensive to ship this book overseas, John has made it available as a FREE PDF download until August 15, 2017. This is the first book in a trilogy John is writing about knowing God’s love and life in limitless ways. Just go here and click on the image of the front cover. If you find the book valuable and you want to share a contribution to help them with the work God’s called them to do, please feel free.

I’ve known John and Jenny Langford for well over a decade, visiting them in their home in England and crossing paths with them at gatherings with other friends in Ireland and France. John even shared a bit of his story with me on a GodJourney podcast, What’s In Your Heart? John and Jenny are native South Africans but moved to the UK many years ago. He is a businessman with a heart to help other people connect with Jesus and help them grow. He posts his thoughts and other resources on a website called His Life. John and Jenny are some of the true elders of the faith that I’ve met in my travels. I’m excited to see him make some of his thoughts available in book form, and making their lives more available to help others find the life in Christ they have discovered. I’m so glad I can share this book with readers here at Lifestream. You’ll find it a great encouragement with practical insight and heart. He really lives the things he writes about.

]]>https://www.lifestream.org/free-book-living-beyond-borders/feed/310103FINDING CHURCH Discussion Continueshttps://www.lifestream.org/finding-church-discussion-continues/
Thu, 27 Jul 2017 18:31:17 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=10092Our book discussion on Finding Church has reached Chapter 17: Unity Without Conformity. This is one of my favorite chapters, because most people cannot imagine a unity of the church that does not come from manipulating political and institutional structures to get people to do what is right. But conformity will never produce the wholehearted […]

]]>Our book discussion on Finding Church has reached Chapter 17: Unity Without Conformity. This is one of my favorite chapters, because most people cannot imagine a unity of the church that does not come from manipulating political and institutional structures to get people to do what is right. But conformity will never produce the wholehearted unity that Jesus prayed for his Father to give us. That kind of unity only comes out of transformed hearts and lives where the glory of God has come to in habits a human vessel, and that vessel connects with others so that the temple rises across the whole planet showing the principalities and powers that God is able to take selfish humans and knit them into a powerful demonstration of his splendor.

Excerpt from Chapter 17:

The power of the church lies in the unity they find together—men and women loving and working together wholeheartedly because they have found their life and joy in him instead of their own preferences and ideas. How could any conformity-based system produce this unity when people are following the expectations of others rather than living out of an ever-expanding heart? Without that, real unity cannot exist. (p. 154)

Jesus didn’t pray for conformity, but a unity that can only arise out of lives transformed by his glory. The answer to this prayer fulfills God’s passion in the earth and by it the world will know that the Father loves us as much as he loves his Jesus. When people out of diverse backgrounds come to complete unity of heart, purpose, and focus, God is unveiled in a way nothing else can accomplish. (p. 155)

]]>10092If There Ever Was a Time…https://www.lifestream.org/if-there-ever-was-a-time/
https://www.lifestream.org/if-there-ever-was-a-time/#commentsTue, 25 Jul 2017 16:11:25 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=10033If you’ve ever wanted to help with people so poor and so excluded from resources they cannot help themselves, this is it. Bad charity gives us a lot of reasons NOT to give, but this project in Pokot ticks all the right boxes for me. The need is genuine. This is one of the truly […]

]]>If you’ve ever wanted to help with people so poor and so excluded from resources they cannot help themselves, this is it. Bad charity gives us a lot of reasons NOT to give, but this project in Pokot ticks all the right boxes for me.

The need is genuine.This is one of the truly tragic places left in the earth with great need and little aid from government or nonprofits from anywhere in the world. It is remote and the need is so great many turn away overwhelmed. It is truly one of the uttermost parts of the earth where drought, malnutrition, and lack of hygiene are killing off thousands of people.

Every dime you send goes to the need in Pokot. We do not take out any administrative or transactional fees. All that is paid for by Lifestream.

It is furthering the Gospel in a non-coersive way. The help is being given freely, but with it the opportunity to come to know the Living Jesus for those who are interested. And there are so many interested, because they used to pray to their ancestors, but their ancestors did not come to help them. You and our friends in Kitale helped them.

We are not creating an ongoing dependency on western aid, but intentionally helping them no longer need it. This is not giving someone a fish, but teaching them how to fish and supplying them with the nets and boat so they can actually do it.

The Pokot people are deeply involved and vested in each phase of this project. Resources from us are matched 50/50 with sweat equity from the people there so that they come to “own” it. These people already began to clear land in advance of our saying we’d help provide irrigation in hopes that God would provide some way.

Please don’t let any of that put you under a load of guilt. I say this so people who are normally cynical about these kinds of needs would look a bit deeper. We do not need and do not want any guilt-driven dollars to help here. We are looking for generous hearts who have some extra resource and upon hearing of the need, a growing desire to help the people of Pokot.

This week ChristianityToday.com ran an article about World Vision having a difficult time raising money to help with the desperate need in Turkana. It was called, Why Christians Should Stop Caring About So Many Causes. Turkana is the county right next to Pokot, with the same challenges we have faced there. Here’s a brief excerpt from that article:

Many people come here and take pictures,” the elder told me as he leaned on his walking stick, his slender frame swathed in heavy cloth despite the heat. “Then they go away and never help.” This is the moment that haunts me from my recent visit to Turkana, a region in northwestern Kenya crippled by drought and sliding inexorably into widespread hunger.

This article made me all the more grateful for the generosity of this audience and those at The God Journey for helping us send over $1.3 million to that region in the last nine years.We began after the disputed election brought tribal violence to that region leaving hundreds of children homeless and in need of care. It has continued in recent years as people we know there discovered the great need in Pokot and have been helping them with water, food, education, medical needs, and income generation. We are helping on a five-year plan to create sustainable economies in this very desperate regions of the world. Our hope is to continue to send them $10,000 per month for another 42 months, but there is still more that’s needed to give them the tools to determine their own future.

Over the last couple of weeks we’ve been asked by the villagers in Pokot if we can help them begin agricultural projects near the wells we drilled for them a couple of hears ago. There is simply no food to go around and they want to put in the irrigation infrastructure to help raise their first crops. Just since putting the need out last week, we have already received enough to do the first well as a prototype to do five others. I am amazed and blessed and want to see if we can find enough ($150,00) to do all six over the next year or two. That will provide them with a steady source of food and they will look to expand it in years to come.

If you have it on your heart to help these Kenyan people suffering under such a huge strain, you can direct it through Lifestream as contributions are tax-deductible in the US. As always, every dollar you send goes to the need in Kenya. We do not (nor do they) take out any administrative or money transfer fees. Please see our Sharing With the World page at Lifestream. You can either donate with a credit card there, or you can mail a check to Lifestream Ministries • 1560 Newbury Rd Ste 1 • Newbury Park, CA 91320. Or if you prefer, we can take your donation over the phone at (805) 498-7774.

Thank you in advance on behalf of the people of Pokot for your gifts and prayers for them.

]]>https://www.lifestream.org/if-there-ever-was-a-time/feed/410033Helping People Feed Themselveshttps://www.lifestream.org/helping-people-feed/
https://www.lifestream.org/helping-people-feed/#commentsTue, 18 Jul 2017 18:24:47 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=9969I still get a bit freaked when I see that 50% of our expenses last year went to help people in Kenya and South Africa. That’s not how we designed Lifestream to function, but God had plans that went way beyond our own. If you haven’t followed this saga over the past decade or so, […]

]]>I still get a bit freaked when I see that 50% of our expenses last year went to help people in Kenya and South Africa. That’s not how we designed Lifestream to function, but God had plans that went way beyond our own.

If you haven’t followed this saga over the past decade or so, it began with a set of relationships both those I had at home who could afford to help, and with Kenyans abroad who needed help. Over the last 8 years we have channeled over 1.3 million dollars to help our friends in Kitale with orphanage, school, medical expenses, and micro-finance loans and their friends in Pokot with a medical clinic, food, water (drilling six wells), schools, coaching, and business loans. Our goal has been to help tribespeople whose cattle-drive and nomadic economy was wiped out by a prolonged drought. We continue to send $10,000 per month over five years to help when no one else would. I am overwhelmed and grateful that this much generosity would flow through our little corner of the web. Who would have thought?

We now have an opportunity to help them add some agriculture to their community by helping them plant crops near the wells we drilled for them. We’re going to start with one, of the six they’d like to have over the next few years. They will serve 2-7 acres with irrigation and allow them to begin to grow their own crops. In hope and faith they’ve already begun to clear the land. Each agricultural enterprise will cost about $25,000 US and I’m curious if there is anyone out there who would like to help us do that?

Here’s what they wrote me:

We have been praying so much concerning our brothers in North Pokot on how we can get simple irrigation system to cover two acres of land. The starvation over there is high,and they have been affected with outbreaks of diseases due to lack nutritional value in their food. Some already tried farming especially those who stay around the wells to plant little plantation but because of drought the cops dried up. Sometime when we go there we cannot hold the tears to see the starvation but the monthly support of food donation it has really saved their life, especially old aged and breastfeeding moms but the rest are in great distress. The coaches and the committees of Ngetut village where we proposed to have first irrigation. Surprisingly they have started clearing some parts of the bush, preparing for irrigation. Thomas tried to stop till we get a cheaper plan, but they told they are doing it in faith, that one time God will provide. This people are really having great faith.

God is good. He recently connected us with one good man who is an expert in fixing simple irrigation system and he has been installing this irrigation system to the farmers in dry areas like Maasai land and some parts of Busi, so we got his contact and visited him. He was installing to one group of women in Succo, as you may see in some pictures (see above). We invited him in our office and we shared with him at large concerning North Pokot and simple irrigation. He gave us the quotation and sketch for two acres.

The man who will be supervising the work recently found them a solar panel from one of the NGOs that work closely with Red Cross. It has the capacity of generating enough water to cover 7 acres. So in the future they will be extending to the capacity of seven acres as God provides. You can see from the picture above that they plan a very rudimentary water tower with pipes and valves to help irrigate the land when the rains don’t come. They will be doing the work as our friends from Kitale will be coaching them.

What amazes me about this project is that none of these funds benefit those in Kitale who are doing so much work on behalf of those in Pokot. Who does that? Who lets so much money flow through their hands when their needs are great as well, but they have compassion for the people in Pokot whose needs are even greater.

So I am coming to the readers of this site once again. Any amount you can send will be helpful. I am always amazed at the response that we get from those of you who have partnered with us in this corner of the world. If you don’t know our ongoing story here, you can check out this blog from last year. If you have it on your heart to help these Kenyan people suffering under such a huge strain, you can direct it through Lifestream as contributions are tax-deductible in the US. As always, every dollar you send goes to the need in Kenya. We do not (nor do they) take out any administrative or money transfer fees.

If you would like to be part of this to support these brothers and sisters and see the gospel grow in this part of Africa, please see our Sharing With the World page at Lifestream. You can either donate with a credit card there, or you can mail a check to Lifestream Ministries • 1560 Newbury Rd Ste 1 • Newbury Park, CA 91320. Or if you prefer, we can take your donation over the phone at (805) 498-7774.

]]>https://www.lifestream.org/helping-people-feed/feed/99969A World Full of Lovehttps://www.lifestream.org/world-full-love/
https://www.lifestream.org/world-full-love/#commentsSun, 16 Jul 2017 18:17:58 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=9987It was an interesting flight home from South Africa on Ethiopian Airlines. Because their movie selection wasn’t the greatest I found myself on my iPad most of the way home with the interactive map playing on my TV screen. It was amazing how often I looked up and saw our plane flying over some place […]

]]>It was an interesting flight home from South Africa on Ethiopian Airlines. Because their movie selection wasn’t the greatest I found myself on my iPad most of the way home with the interactive map playing on my TV screen. It was amazing how often I looked up and saw our plane flying over some place where I’ve been or where I have connections with people. The map was my ever-present call to celebration of relationships I treasure, and prayer for their ongoing journey.

My route took me north from Johannesburg to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where I changed planes to fly up over Europe landing briefly in Dublin before carrying on overseas and final touchdown in Los Angeles. As I flew over South Africa I prayed for those I had met during my stay and prayed that the conversations we had would bear fruit in their lives with joy and freedom. Then it was over Kitale, where we have helped build an orphanage and support a school. Soon after we were over Pokot where many of you have invested so much resource to help 120,000 people build a sustainable economy after their nomadic ways were devastated by a prolonged drought and where the Gospel is reaching many of those with newfound joy.

Then I was in Ethiopia briefly and I have two good friends with very deep connections there. After take off we flew across the Mediterranean where my family had had such a wonderful celebration of our 40th wedding anniversary a couple of years ago. My family brings me such incredible joy and wonder! And yes, Israel was just off to the right where I have led two tours in the last three years with people from all over the world as we found our way to being a family while we discovered the Holy Land. One of the great joys of this journey I’m on is that I get to meet some of the most incredible people in the world. People learning to live loved are engaging, warm, and lovely. They are easy to communicate with, to laugh and to cry with. Those I meet caught up in world ambition or religious obligation are not nearly so. These relationships make me a rich man indeed and always help affirm the path I’m on.

Then it was across Europe with France on the left, which I may visit this fall and Switzerland on the right where we have some close personal friends. We arched over the UK and landed in Ireland where I get to celebrate the Father’s family whenever I land in either of those two island nations. Then it was out over the Atlantic crossing Canada near Winnipeg, where my son’s girlfriend is from, and I had reminders everywhere of people I love that stretch from Prince Edward Island to Vancouver Island.

Finally we crossed into the U.S. and over the town I visited with good friends in Wyoming last year. Each reminder brought a warmth to my heart and a reminder of God’s incredible work in the world to bring people to himself and help them discover the Life that really is life.

I’ll leave you with two things: If you’re interested here is some audio from my Sunday conversation with a roomful of people at “Grace Kitchen”, a community of people risking their traditional congregation to discover what it means to be a family sharing Father’s love together, and a number of others who joined us that day.

It’s been great to be home reconnecting with Sara this weekend and reliving my trip to South Africa and all the people I got to spend some time with. Blessings to you today and all that encompasses your life.

]]>https://www.lifestream.org/world-full-love/feed/59987Homeward Bound from South Africahttps://www.lifestream.org/homeward-bound-south-africa/
https://www.lifestream.org/homeward-bound-south-africa/#commentsThu, 13 Jul 2017 07:55:15 +0000https://www.lifestream.org/?p=9980In just an hour I leave for the airport to begin my 32-hour door-to-door journey home from South Africa. I leave my 2.5 week stay with fond memories, overwhelming gratitude for all the care extended to me, and so many newfound friendships with people I’ve come to love whose journeys I admire out of the […]

In just an hour I leave for the airport to begin my 32-hour door-to-door journey home from South Africa. I leave my 2.5 week stay with fond memories, overwhelming gratitude for all the care extended to me, and so many newfound friendships with people I’ve come to love whose journeys I admire out of the rigors of religious obligation and into an endearing relationship with Father who loves us all. It is not an easy journey to reconsider the things you’ve been taught that turn out not to be so true, and to reshape a way of living around the Father’s work in us, rather than what we consider to be our work for him.

One theme of this trip has been learning to enjoy the presence of God and let him enjoy us, taken from this story I told on a recent God Journey Podcast. It has really found its way into my heart and how the Father wants us to enjoy the reality of his presence and how we often settle for knowing about God or following his principles, than actually knowing him.

I have held conversations with groups as large as 150 and as small as one person, a couple, or a family of five. I spent four days with a group of young people whose passion to discover how to live loved was infectious and rewarding. I’ve had countless conversations celebrating God’s love and helping people consider the ways God works. This is where religious obligation gets it so wrong. We think God responds to our human effort to find him, rather than his work to find us. We were never intended to carve out a journey with him by our own wisdom or will. It is his to do and as we learn to recognize him as he is pouring his life and love into us, the relationship begins to grow.

This is my prayer this morning for all I’ve met on this journey, and for me as well:

Be assured that from the first day we heard of you, we haven’t stopped praying for you, asking God to give you wise minds and spirits attuned to his will, and so acquire a thorough understanding of the ways in which God works… As you learn more and more how God works, you will learn how to do your work.

Colossians 1:9-10

I love discovering the ways in which God works and simply following along with him. It yields such amazing fruit far more than anything I could accomplish by my own strength. Last night I sat and listen to some people give me feedback about what my time with them had meant. I heard things like, “taking the complexity out of a life with God”, “being so real and being so gentle”, “how restful you are in exploring this journey”, and “where have you been the past 56 years?” I was deeply touched to hear what had communicated to them. Only I know how much of a miracle it is for his life to take shape in me. No one knowing me 30 years ago would have said such things. Learning to live inside his work is just the best and I am so grateful for how he is taking shape in my life.

It has all been such a joy, but my heart has already turned toward home and a much longed-for reunion with Sara, my family, and those crazy pups! There’s nothing like being “at home”, both in the Father’s love, and in Sara’s presence.